At the end of 1990, forests were estimated to cover 27% of the land area of the globe (excluding Antarctica). Just over one-half (52%) of the world's forests were located in the tropics. Tropical deforestation between 1980 and 1990, was estimated at 15.4 million ha/year (-0.8%). This figure is not comparable with the FAO estimate of 1980 (11.4 million ha/year) which was made with different methods and is now understood to be on the low side.
The document, “Forest Resources Assessment 1990: tropical countries” (FRA90), has recently been finalized and published as FAO Forestry Paper No. 112 (FAO 1993). The document will be complemented by a study on Forest Resources of Temperate Zone Developing Countries, and by a Global Synthesis covering the forest resources of the world, which both will be published by FAO in 1994. The latter document will incorporate also data from the two-volume report on the state and trends in temperate zone developed countries, “The Forest Resources of the Temperate Zones”, recently published by the Joint Division of the Economic Commission for Europe and FAO (ECE/FAO 1992), and will thus aim at producing a truly global picture of forests and forestry in the world at the end of 1990.
According to FRA90, which covered 90 tropical countries, the largest extent of tropical forest was found in Latin America and the Caribbean (52% of the total tropical forest area), followed by Africa (30%) and Asia and the Pacific (18%). The annual loss of forest cover was 0.8% in Tropical Latin America, 1.2% in Tropical Asia and 0.7% in Tropical Africa. Ecologically, the largest losses were in upland formations (2.5 million ha/year, 1.1%), followed by the moist deciduous forest (6.1 million ha/year, 1.0%), the dry and the very dry zone forests (2.2 million ha/year, 0.9%), and the tropical rainforest (4.6 million ha/year, 0.6%). Although the forest area in the temperate zone showed an overall increase in area, trends were not uniform; e.g. the United States, with a total area of forest of 210 million ha, recorded net losses in the area of forest and other wooded land of 3.2 million ha over 10 years up to 1987; while the net gain in forest and other wooded land between 1980 and 1990 in Europe (excluding the former USSR), was 2.0 million ha. Compared with the rather minor increase in the area of forest and other wooded land of the temperate zones, there is a more significant increase in the volume of growing stock reported by almost all countries of the region.
FAO's 1980 forest resources assessment study (FAO 1982) reported that less than 5% of the tropical forest was under sustainable forest management. FRA90 does not up-date this figure but laments the generalized lack of forest management, including silvicultural interventions.
Areas classified as conservation areas (areas designated for conservation by law or other regulation) and protection areas (areas within the forestry sector located in terrain or environmental conditions prohibitive of forest management for productive purposes), reportedly covered 14.8% of the forest land in the tropics by the end of 1990. Only 5% of these areas, however, were reported to have been inventoried for one or more taxonomic groups. In relation to biological diversity as related to protected areas, forest management and deforestation, FRA90 notes: “It need not be mentioned that the present state of knowledge does not permit to make-reliable statements on the extent and rate of loss of biodiversity”. However, the report sounds a warning regarding risks of species loss, especially in those ecosystems which are being deforested at high rates (see above).
The total gross area of tropical forest plantations in the 90 countries covered in FRA90, amounted to 43.8 million ha at the end of 1990. A tentative, weighted average for successful plantation establishment on a global level, was 70% (±6%, at 95% confidence levels). The increase in the total area of plantations in the tropics between 1980 and 1990, was 26.1 million ha. The share of industrial plantations in this region was, at the end of 1990, about 35%. There was a considerable, relative increase in non-industrial plantations in the form of woodlots, line plantings and agroforestry: while the area under industrial plantations doubled, the area of non-industrial plantations almost tripled over the past 10 years.
The largest share of tropical plantations was found in Tropical Asia (73%), followed by Tropical Latin America (20%) and Tropical Africa (7%). About 85% of the plantations was established in just five countries: India, Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam and Thailand. Only a small fraction of tropical countries (24 countries out of the 90 countries included in the study) reported the existence of national level information and records on areas planted and main species used.
Sources:
FAO 1982 Tropical Forest Resources. FAO Forestry Paper 30. FAO, Rome.
FAO 1993 Forest Resources Assessment 1990: tropical countries. FAO Forestry Paper. FAO, Rome.
ECE/FAO. 1992 The Forest Resources of the Temperate Zones. The UN-ECE/FAO 1990 Forest Resource Assessment, Vols I and II. ECE/TIM 62. Economic Commission for Europe and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
Forest Genetic Resources Information no. 21. FAO, Rome (1993)
