after they have been lost primary forests cannot be recovered except through major efforts to reintroduce native species followed by longterm protection of the candidate terrestrial landscapes in the extreme case viet nam lost more than per cent of its primary forest area compared with the forest cover that had existed in that country in in terms of proportions of primary forest to total forest area shares of primary forest in asia and the pacific are well below the global average developed countries tend to have smaller shares of primary forests compared with the developing and low income economies in the region