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Appendix 3. Global tables

OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL TABLES AND PAGE REFERENCES:

Table

Title

Notes

Table





1

Basic country data

40

40





2

Forest cover - information status

40

40





3

Forest cover 2000

40

40





4

Change in forest cover 1990-2000

40

40





5

Forest cover - latest national statistics

40

40





6

Forest plantations 2000

40

40





7

Volume and biomass in forest

40

40





8

Forest fires 1990-2000

40

40





9

Status and trends in forest management

40

40





10

Removals

40

40





11

Comparison of forest management areas

40

40





12

Non-wood forest products - major product groups

40

40





13

Endangered, endemic species for seven species groups

40

40





14

Distribution of total forest area by ecological zone

40

40





15

Forest in protected areas/available for wood supply

40

40





16

FRA 2000 country interaction

40

40


NOTES TO GLOBAL TABLES

General notes

The 16 tables included represent a summary of FRA 2000 findings. The tables are available on the FAO Forestry Web site (www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp)

Country nomenclature and regional groups used in the tables

The country names and order used in these tables follow standard UN practice regarding nomenclature and alphabetical listing of countries. Data for China incorporate values for China (including Hong Kong and Macao) and for Taiwan Province of China, as consistent with UN practice. The regional groups used in these tables represent FAO's standardized regional breakdown of the world according to geographical (note: not economic or political) criteria.

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Totals

Numbers may not tally because of rounding.

Abbreviations

n.s.

=

not significant, indicating a very small value

-

=

not available (n.a.)

n.ap.

=

not applicable

000

=

thousands


=

empty data cells indicate a zero value


Further information

For many of the country estimates, further background and explanation of the numbers are available in the FAO Forestry country profiles at: www.fao.org/forestry/fo/country/nav_world.jsp

Table 1: Basic country data (page 40)

The "Land area" figure refers to total area of the country, excluding areas under inland water bodies. These data have been derived from the total area of the country (including inland water) as maintained by FAOSTAT (http://apps.fao.org), minus the area of inland water as reported by FRA 2000 (see Table 5 below). Population statistics on total population, population density, and annual rate of change are taken from World population prospects - the 1998 revision (UN 1999). The source of "percentage rural population" data is World urbanization prospects - the 1996 revision (UN 1997).

The source of the economic data is World development indicators 1999 (World Bank 2000). The gross national product (GNP) per capita figure represents the GNP divided by the mid-year population. The data are in constant 1995 US dollars. The annual percentage growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) is based on constant local currency.

Table 2: Forest cover - information status (page 40)

The table indicates the availability of forest cover information and its compatibility with definitions used in FRA 2000. "Latest available statistics" refers to the latest available and relevant source data covering the entire country (see also Table 5). "Reference year" is the average year of the field survey or the remote sensing material used. "Method" specifies how the information was obtained (FS = nationwide field sampling, DM = detailed mapping, GM = general mapping, ES = expert estimate). "Compatibility" indicates how well the national forest classifications could be transformed to FRA 2000 global classes (H = High, M = Medium, L = Low). The "Time series" columns indicate whether a country time series for forest cover could be constructed and used in FRA 2000, and how compatible the observations along the time series were (H = High, M = Medium, L = Low). The number of references is the number of publications used in FRA 2000 to estimate forest cover and plantation extent for the country.

Table 3: Forest cover 2000
Table 4: Change in forest cover 1990-2000 (page 40)

The tables show the forest cover in 2000 and the estimated change between 1990 and 2000. FAO made adjustments to the standard reference years 1990 and 2000 based on available national statistics (see also Tables 2 and 5). "Total forest" is the sum of natural forest and plantations. "Forest cover change" is the net change in forests and includes expansion of plantations, and losses and gains in the area of natural forests. Changes to FRA 2000 estimates have been included up to 19 January 2001. The statistics will be updated as new information becomes available; latest updates are posted on the FAO Forestry Web site (www.fao.org/forestry/fo/country/nav_world.jsp).

Table 5: Forest cover - latest national statistics (page 40)

The table presents the latest forest cover statistics with national coverage, reclassified from national classifications into the global classification system used in FRA 2000 (see also Table 2). In some cases the national coverage was obtained by combining several surveys into a national scenario. "Reference year" is the average year of the field survey or the remote sensing material used. Refer to FRA Working Paper No. 1 (FAO 1998) for an explanation of definitions used (www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/docs/FRA_WP1eng.pdf). The statistics have been obtained from analysis of national documentation which is fully referenced in the country profiles on the FAO Forestry Web site (www.fao.org/forestry/fo/country/nav_world.jsp).

Table 6: Forest plantations 2000 (page 40)

Forest plantations are forest stands of introduced species, or intensively managed stands of indigenous species of even age class and regular spacing (see also Annex 1). The table shows the total plantation area in 2000 and the currently reported annual expansion of plantation forest. The total area is broken down by major species groups. The statistics have been obtained from analysis of national documentation which is fully referenced in the country profiles on the FAO Forestry Web site (www.fao.org/forestry/fo/country/nav_world.jsp), where a further breakdown of plantation areas according to ownership and purpose is presented.

Table 7: Volume and biomass in forest (page 40)

The table shows estimates of volume (total volume over bark of living trees above 10 cm diameter at breast height) and biomass (above-ground mass of the woody part (stem, bark, branches, twigs) of trees, alive or dead, shrubs and bushes. "Information source" refers to the type of source data used for the estimate (NI = national inventory, PI = partial inventory, ES = expert estimate, EX = data extrapolated from other countries).

For industrialized countries (Europe, the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States) the stem volume for all living trees has been used for the volume figure. Some variation as to the minimum diameter applied are reported in UNECE/FAO (2000).

Table 8: Forest fires 1990-2000 (page 40)

Forest wildfire statistics for the 1990s are presented by number of fires and area affected. The average, smallest (min) and largest (max) values are shown. Note that the figures are derived on partial time series when data from some years are missing.

Table 9: Status and trends in forest management (page 40)

Criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management

Membership of ecoregional processes on criteria and indicators are listed using the following acronyms:

ATO =

African Timber Organization

DZAf =

Dry-Zone Africa Process on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management

DFAs =

Regional Initiative for the Development and Implementation of National Level Criteria and Indicators for the Sustainable Management of Dry Forests in Asia

EUR =

Pan-European Forest Process on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management

ITTO =

International Tropical Timber Organization

LEP =

Lepaterique Process of Central America on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management

MON =

Montreal Process on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests

NE =

Near East Process on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management

TARA =

Tarapoto Proposal of Criteria and Indicators for Sustainability of the Amazon Forest


Four countries that were invited to join the Pan-European Forest Process (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, San Marino and Yugoslavia) as of December 2000 have been included in the table.

Area under forest management plans in 2000

For industrialized countries (Europe, CIS countries, Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States), the areas listed include all forest areas managed irrespective of whether a formal plan exists or not. See further explanation under the geographical regions below. For additional information on these countries refer to UNECE/FAO (2000).

Some countries (including all the industrialized countries and many in South America) provided information both on the total area of forest managed or under a management plan (in hectares) and on the area in percentage of the latest figure available for the total area of forest.

In this study, the area figures provided have been used and the percentage figures (which are in percentage of the estimated forest area in 2000) may therefore differ from national statistics and should be treated with some caution. One notable exception concerns countries that reported that all forest areas were under management. In these cases the percentage figure (100 percent) was used and the actual area figure was recalculated to correspond to the 2000 forest area figure. The figure of the area under management may, therefore, differ from national statistics for these countries.

All national-level information was provided as part of FRA 2000 reporting or as national reports presented to Regional Forestry Commission meetings. Partial data were obtained from a variety of sources.

Africa. The definition used for area under forest management plans in Africa is: "The area of forest which is managed for various purposes (conservation, production, other) in accordance with a formal, nationally approved management plan over a sufficiently long period (five years or more)".

Asia. Two definitions for area under forest management plans were used in Asia. Industrialized countries (CIS countries, Cyprus, Israel, Japan and Turkey) reported on "Forest [and other wooded land] which is managed in accordance with a formal or an informal plan applied regularly over a sufficiently long period (five years or more). The management operations include the tasks to be accomplished in individual forest stands (e.g. compartments) during the given period". It was also recommended that any areas where a decision had been made not to manage the area at all should be included. The figures used are those pertaining to forests only, excluding other wooded lands.

The remaining countries reported on "The area of forest which is managed for various purposes (conservation, production, other) in accordance with a formal, nationally approved management plan over a sufficiently long period (five years or more)".

For Georgia, forests classified as "undisturbed" were listed as not managed.

For the Philippines, the area under forest management plans included forest land with less than 20 percent crown cover.

Oceania. With two exceptions (Australia and New Zealand), the definition used for area under forest management plans in Oceania was: "The area of forest which is managed for various purposes (conservation, production, other) in accordance with a formal, nationally approved management plan over a sufficiently long period (five years or more)".

For Australia and New Zealand, the definition included informal management plans and areas where a decision had been made not to manage the area at all.

For Australia, only the forests managed for wood supply were included in the figure provided.

Europe. The definition used for area under forest management plans in all the European countries was: "Forest [and other wooded land] which is managed in accordance with a formal or an informal plan applied regularly over a sufficiently long period (five years or more). The management operations include the tasks to be accomplished in individual forest stands (e.g. compartments) during the given period". It was also recommended that areas where a decision had been made not to manage the area at all should be included. The figures used are those pertaining to forests only, excluding other wooded lands.

For Italy, only forests with specific management plans were included in the figure given for forests under management. All other forests in the country are submitted to general silvicultural prescriptions.

For Finland, the original figure provided on the area of forest managed was 18 609 000 ha. However, as of December 2000 a total of 21.9 million hectares had been certified. Since this implies the existence of a management regime, this latter, more recent figure has been used.

North and Central America. With two exceptions (Canada and the United States), the definition used for area under forest management plans in North and Central America was: "The area of forest which is managed for various purposes (conservation, production, other) in accordance with a formal, nationally approved management plan over a sufficiently long period (five years or more)".

For Canada and the United States, the definition included informal management plans and areas where a decision had been made not to manage the area at all.

South America. The definition used for area under forest management plans in South America was: "The area of forest which is managed for various purposes (conservation, production, other) in accordance with a formal, nationally approved management plan over a sufficiently long period (five years or more)".

For Guyana, the figure provided on area under management equals the area under concession agreements, as all concessionaires must prepare a long-term forest management plan to be approved by the government.

Areas under forest management in 1990 and 1980

Figures for areas under forest management in 1990 and 1980 are taken from FAO (1988), FAO/UNEP (1982), UNECE/FAO (1985) and UNECE/FAO (1992). The percentages represent the percentage of the respective forest areas in 1980 and 1990 as provided in these references.

The definitions of forest under management were as follows:

Note that the definition of forest changed for industrialized countries between 1990 and 2000 (from crown cover of 20 percent to crown cover of 10 percent), so the figures are not directly comparable in some cases.

Europe. For Bulgaria, the area under forest management plans (1980) included other wooded land and the percentage is thus above 100.

For Yugoslavia, the figures from 1980 and 1990 correspond to the former Yugoslavia, hence the sharp decrease in area under management plans for the year 2000.

For further details, please refer to the references cited.

Certified forest areas

The cumulative area of forests certified under the following schemes is listed:

ATFP =

American Tree Farm Program (as of December 2000)

CSA =

Canada's National Sustainable Forest Management System Standard (as of 21 December 2000)

FSC =

Forest Stewardship Council - Accredited Certification Bodies (as of 31 December 2000)

GT =

Green Tag (United States) (as of 31 December 2000)

PEFC =

Pan-European Forest Certification (National schemes endorsed by the PRFC Council) (as of December 2000)

SFI =

Sustainable Forest Initiative Program, American Forest and Paper Association (for Canada as of 21 December 2000, for the United States as of October 2000)


Although about 29 million hectares of land are enrolled in the SFI program in the United States and Canada, and plans are to have 56 million hectares under third-party certification by the end of 2001, only those areas which had already been independently certified by the end of 2000 have been included (12 million hectares in the United States and 1.04 million hectares in Canada).

Areas certified under the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Standard scheme have only been included if also certified under specific forest certification schemes.

In Canada, a total of 30 980 046 ha of forest has been certified under the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Standard scheme (as of 21 December 2000). However, only those area which have also been certified under CSA, FSC or SFI - equivalent to 3 615 000 ha - have been included in this table.

In New Zealand, more than 300 000 ha have been certified under the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Standard scheme (as of May 2000). These areas have not been included in the table.

Ghana, Malaysia and Indonesia, among others, are developing national certification schemes and additional areas may soon be certified under these. A total of 2 325 356 ha of forests in three states of Malaysia (Pahang, Terengganu and Selangor) have, as a first step, been assessed to the requirements of a mutually agreed standard and were awarded audit statements by an independent third-party assessor (the Keurhout Foundation) under the Malaysia/Netherlands cooperation programme (H. Singh, National Timber Certification Council, Malaysia, personal communication, 2001).

Table 10: Removals (page 40)

For tropical countries, removals are reported as total area under harvesting scheme (short- to very long-term), area actually harvested annually and the harvesting intensity range in volume per hectare. For industrialized countries, the total volume annually harvested is given.

Table 11: Comparison of forest management areas (page 40)

Data from Tables 9, 10 and 15 are combined to compare the areas under forest management from different aspects. As the assessment procedure has been different for the different management categories, the numbers may not always match. Note that the reported areas overlap to some extent (e.g. area under management plan and protected areas). Notes for Tables 9 and 10 apply.

Table 12: Non-wood forest products - major product groups (page 40)

Major product groups are identified with an "x" by country, using the standard product groups developed by FAO for NWFP country profiles. Detailed descriptions of the products and data by country can be found in the FAO Forestry Web site country profiles (www.fao.org/forestry/fo/country/nav_world.jsp).

Table 13: Number of endangered, endemic species for seven species groups (page 40)

The table is based on a study carried out by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP-WCMC) for FRA 2000 (FAO 2001). The study examined the presence and threatened status (whether the species were considered globally endangered) for seven species groups: amphibians, birds, ferns, mammals, palms, reptiles and trees. The threatened status was derived from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists of threatened species.

The total number of species (sum of the seven groups) present in each country is given in the first column, and the number thereof that are considered endangered in the second.

Of the total number of threatened species, the number of country-endemic species are then reported in the third column.

Finally, the last seven columns list how many of the endangered and country-endemic species occur in forests, for each species group.

Table 14: Distribution of total forest area by ecological zone (page 40)

The table is derived from FRA 2000 global maps of forest cover and ecological zones. The distribution of forest area over ecological zones was produced by overlaying these maps and a country mask. The distribution is reported in percentage of total forest area.

The distributon of ecological zones has been analysed for each country individually based on the FRA 2000 global maps. Totals for regions and the world are not given, as they would not tally exactly with the global distribution of ecological zones given in Chapter 47.

Table 15: Forest in protected areas / available for wood supply (page 40)

Forest protected areas refer to areas within IUCN categories I to VI for nature protection. "Country report" refers to the country submissions to FRA 2000 from industrialized countries, in which the term "protection" was interpreted broadly, particularly for IUCN categories V and VI, and may include areas under general forest management. "Global maps" refers to an overlay (implemented by UNEP-WCMC) of FRA 2000 global maps of forest cover and the FRA 2000 global map of protected areas with legal protection status. Percentages refer to total forest area.

"Forest available for wood supply" refers to a study based on FRA 2000 global maps (see Chapter 9). It was assumed that forests inside protected areas are not available for wood supply and that forests above an altitude threshold (tropical domain, 3 000 m; subtropical, 2 500 m; temperate, 2 000 m; boreal, 1 000 m) were economically inaccessible. The remaining forest area was measured within different distances to existing infrastructure (roads and railroads, but not rivers). Results for distances of 10, 20, 30 and 50 km are reported, as well as for an unlimited distance.

Table 16: FRA 2000 country interaction (page 40)

This table lists for each country the FRA 2000 country correspondent - the official contact point for information requests and validation of results.

The table also indicates the countries in which FRA 2000 assignments were carried out to support the national assessments, the countries that participated in workshops and meetings organized within the framework of FRA 2000, and additional FRA 2000 documents that are available for the country.

The document codes are as follows:

WPx =

FRA Working Paper No. x, www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp



WPx, y =

two different FRA Working Papers, Nos. x and y



UNECE =

UNECE/FAO (2000)



EC-FAO =

proceedings from workshops carried out within the EC-FAO projects in support of outlook studies and FRA 2000. Documents available on line at: www.fao.org/forestry/FON/FONS/outlook/Africa/ACP/acp-proc.stm


BIBLIOGRAPHY

FAO. 1988. An interim report on the state of forest resources in the developing countries. Miscellaneous paper FO:MISC/88/7. Rome.

FAO. 1998. FRA 2000 terms and definitions. FRA Working Paper No. 1. Rome.
(www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/docs/FRA_WP1eng.pdf)

FAO. 2001. Forest occurring species of conservation concern: review of status of information for FRA 2000. FRA Working Paper No. 53. Rome.
www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp

FAO/UNEP. 1982. Tropical forest resources. FAO Forestry Paper No. 30. Rome.

UNECE/FAO. 1985. The forest resources of the ECE Region (Europe, the USSR, North America). Geneva.

UNECE/FAO. 1992. The forest resources of the temperate zones. The UNECE/FAO 1990 Forest Resources Assessment. Vol. 1. General forest resource information. New York, UN.

UNECE/FAO. 2000. Forest resources of Europe, CIS, North America, Australia, Japan and New Zealand: contribution to the global Forest Resources Assessment 2000. Geneva Timber and Forest Study Papers No. 17. New York and Geneva, UN.
www.unece.org/trade/timber/fra/pdf/contents.htm

United Nations. 1997. World urbanization prospects - the 1996 revision. New York.

UN. 1999. World population prospects - the 1998 revision. New York.

World Bank. 2000. World development indicators 1999. Washington, DC.


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