As FAO also estimates, deforestation accounted for a loss of forest cover of approximately 13 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2005— a loss that could not be compensated by the 5.7 million hectares recovered during the same period from the natural expansion of forests and forest plantations. Local human activities that are being undertaken in and near forests—mostly unsustainable logging, conversion of forests to agricultural land, conversion of coastal mangrove forests for aquaculture, mining, infrastructure creation and the expansion of human settlements—as well as forest fires, further accelerate deforestation and degradation. Forest degradation lowers the capacity of forests to provide the community with the livelihood resources needed to withstand and recover from disasters.