BIOPLAN POSTING 2001-5-16
BIOPLAN POSTING 2001-5-16
Ken Creighton <ken.creighton@undp.org>
Sent by: owner-bioplan@undp.org
05/03/01 07:57 PM
bioplan
Ken Creighton <ken.creighton@undp.org>
Dear Bioplan readers,
The UN FAO Forestry Department's comprehensive compilation of forestry
statistics on a worlwide basis is probably the most widely used source
of information for global and regional trends in forest resource use.
A
summary of the FAO's Forest Resources Assessment 2000 can be found
at:
ftp://ftp.fao.org/unfao/bodies/cofo/cofo15/X9835e.doc
Warning: this file is big - ca. 1750k. The abstract is provided below.
Following the abstract of the FAO study is a press release from WRI
and
WWF challenging some of FAO's interpretation.
A case of seeing the glass half full versus seeing it half empty?
Reminds me of the old saying that ..."there are lies, damn, lies and
statistics......"
Ken
ABSTRACT
The paper presents an overview of findings from the Global Forest
Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000). FRA 2000 was based on an
exhaustive survey of inventory reports from around the world dialogues
with national forestry experts and application of a core global set
of
definitions. The assessment concluded that the world’s forest cover
at
the year 2000 was 3.86 billion hectares compared to FAO’s previous
estimate of 3.45 billion hectares in 1995. However, the two estimates
are not directly comparable due to changes in definitions and the
information base.
Net annual deforestation at the global level is still high at 9 million
hectares, with gross deforestation estimated at 13.5 million hectares
per annum. This is a significantly lower net rate compared to FAO’s
previous report for the period 1990-1995 (11.3 million ha per year),
partly due to improved datasets. Key factors contributing to
the
estimate of lower net forest loss are attributed to natural regeneration
of forests in industrialized countries and high rates of plantation
establishment in Asia, particularly in China and India. However, the
large-scale conversion of forests to other land uses was not
significantly lower in the tropics between the 1980s and the 1990s.
FRA 2000 showed that the concept of sustainable forest management (SFM)
continues to gain momentum around the world. Most countries are
involved in international initiatives related to SFM and areas under
forest management plans are increasing. But statistics on key
indicators of SFM are still missing from a large number of countries.
Forest and forestry information has increased in quantity over the
past
decade, but studies within the current assessment indicate that primary
information and first-hand knowledge may not have improved significantly
at the global level.
Comprehensive reports are found at www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp
on the FAO website.
Reactions by WRI and WWF posted at:
http://www.wri.org/press/fao_fra5.html
are reprinted below.
WRI study reports deforestation may be higher than FAO estimates
WASHINGTON, DC, March 12, 2001 - A new study by the World Resources
Institute of the UN Food and Agriculture's (FAO) latest assessment
of
the world's forests reports that deforestation may not be slowing down
and may have even increased in the tropics.
According to FAO's Forest Resources Assessment 2000, which will
be
released today during a high-level meeting in Rome, the global rate
of
deforestation averaged 9 million hectares per year during the 1990s.
FAO
claims a slowdown of 20 percent compared with the deforestation rate
measured in the first half of the decade.
"FAO's own data show that the loss of natural forests in the tropics
continues to be rapid," said Emily Matthews, author of the new WRI
study, Understanding the Forest Resources Assessment 2000. "For FAO
to
say that global deforestation is slowing down is misleading given the
differences in the regional and subregional conditions of the world's
forests."
Deforestation rates have increased in tropical Africa, remained
constant in Central America, and declined only slightly in tropical
Asia
and South America. The WRI report, which was endorsed by the World
Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF), points out that understanding the true rate
of
deforestation is made more confusing because FAO's "net rate of change"
measures the combined change in natural forest area and plantation
area.
During the 1990s, an average of 3 million hectares of new plantations
were planted globally each year, and FAO counts these as offsetting
natural forest loss.
If new plantations are excluded from consideration, it appears
that
natural forests in the tropics are being lost at the rate of
nearly 16
million hectares a year. "The extent of tropical deforestation appears
to be higher in all tropical regions except Latin America," says
Matthews. "More tropical forests were lost in the 1990s than
the
1980s."
Bruce Cabarle, Director of the Global Forest Program at WWF-US
agrees.
"Based on the
experience of more than 300 active forest projects in more than
50
countries worldwide, WWF does not believe that deforestation
is slowing
down, but rather has continued at the same or even higher levels than
in
the 1980s, and that this is cause for alarm rather than complacency."
FAO claims that Forest Resources Assessment 2000, the latest in
a
series of reports issued every ten years, is the most comprehensive
in
the organization's 50-year history. It is the leading forest
reference
for ecologists, climate change scientists, policymakers, and
environmental activists.
"No other organization provides such comprehensive information on global
forests as FAO and we are concerned that the report's findings are
as
accurate as possible," said Dr. Anthony Janetos, WRI senior vice
president and chief of programs. "Accurate monitoring is critical when
forests are rapidly disappearing, flora and fauna are at risk of
extinction and a wealth of environmental goods and services are being
lost."
FAO has admitted that its forest inventory information remains poor.
More than half the developing country inventories used by FAO were
either more than 10 years old or incomplete. Some developed country
inventories also suffer from major methodological inconsistencies.
WRI's report pays tribute to FAO's committed effort to pull together
the
new global forest
assessment in the face of great technical, institutional, and financial
constraints but points out that there is an urgent need for greater
efforts at national and international levels to improve the quality
and
timeliness of information available.
To solve the continuing problem of poor data, and inconsistent reporting
methods, WRI's report suggests that FAO should focus its
efforts on
collecting a core set of information, and collaborate with a wider
range
of organizations which can offer high quality information, particularly
from satellite images.
"While it is critically important that information on forest extent
and
rate of change are more accurate, we also need to go further
and
develop reliable methods to monitor the quality and condition
of
forests," says Cabarle.
WRI's Matthews says that we need to know how forests are changing,
and
how these changes affect products and key ecosystem goods and services.
"At the beginning of the 21st century, it is clear that official data
collection efforts still haven't provided an accurate picture of the
extent of the world's forest or how fast we are losing them."
--
G. Ken Creighton, Ph.D.
UNDP Coordinator
Biodiversity Planning Support Programme
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