This session was opened by Doug Williamson, Chairperson, who extended warm thanks from FAO and WCMC to everybody for attending. He then went on to summarise the conclusions reached at the Workshop, presented below.
1. Being a first meeting of FAO with regional experts, the workshop has been very useful, in particular through the lively interaction and good feed-back. To a large extent, the workshop objectives have been met.
2. This was the first step in a continuing process: it should be noted that the workshop and subsequent production of a Global EZ map for FRA2000 is a first step of a longer- term process. In a continued dialogue with the regional experts and countries, FAO intends to further improve and refine the current map/classification.
3. There was a good overall regional representation, although tropics was weakly represented. This was counterbalanced by the special expertise of certain of the participants based outside of the tropics, e.g., M.F. Bellan, H. Simons and D. Williamson. Each participant participated fully and all were very committed to the task. There was a good mixture of foresters and biogeographers / vegetation scientists represented at the workshop.
4. Recommendations for improving the level 2 zones are noted, principally:
a. Tropical seasonally Dry climates will be subdivided according to the recommendations of the tropical group.
b. Temperate oceanic climates will not be subdivided at this level into those occurring in more northerly regions, generally with mixed needleleaf/broadleaf forests, from those of more southerly regions characterised by broadleaf-dominated forests. This may be represented in level 3.
c. Boreal climates will be divided on a north-south basis into tundra regions and taiga regions, but will not be further subdivided according to their continental or oceanic characters at this level. This may be represented in level 3.
5. Mountains will be included in level 2 as one category for each major level 1 zone.
6. A new table incorporating the recommended changes should be Drafted subsequent to the workshop by Henk Simons and circulated along with the workshop report to all participants (this is appended at the end of this Section of the report).
7. For all regions suitable data are available and have been selected.
8. The system is usable, with some reservations mainly referring to the inclusion of mountain systems and the grouping of the sub-regions influenced by distance from coasts. Nomenclature issues were generally resolved.
9. Not all boundary regions have been looked at, but the ones that have seem not to present any particular problems. This indicates that boundary issues will not generally be a problem.
10. Terminology used will not always be in a form agreeable to experts from particular regions. It is proposed that this will be addressed in the documentation accompanying the map.
11. The overall soundness of the approach is accepted. However, FAO needs to be aware that it has its limits, and that FAO should commit to improve upon this.
12. This map product should not be used at scales greater than the smallest regional map input scale. This will probably be between 10 and 20 Million. Almost all data are readily available in digital form, or easily convertible to this. It will be possible to complete the map within the timeframe because of the map availability.
13. All of the parties at the workshop are willing to make the data required available to FAO. When doing so, it has been requested that they indicate whether their data can be made available to all the other parties at the workshop as well. FAO undertakes to distribute the data to the workshop parties if given permission.
Schedule items:
The workshop report will be compiled by WCMC. The draft of the workshop report will be circulated to the core team (FAO, EDC and LET) by October and subsequently to all participants. Comments will then be incorporated before publication by FAO.
During the latter half of 1999, participants will be contacted by EDC/FAO concerning data for their regions. These will be incorporated into a draft of the EZ map by EDC. A validation meeting will be held in EDC, attended by the core team, in July 2000, and the final map and database will be released in August 2000.
Revised FAO Global Ecological zoning (based on Köppen, adapted by Threwartha)
EZ Level 1 |
EZ Level 2 | ||||
Name |
Criteria (Equivalent Köppen –Trewartha Climatic Groups) |
Name (reflecting zonala vegetation) |
Criteria (approximate equivalent Köppen – Trewartha Climatic types, in combination with vegetation physiognomy, and one orographic zone within each Level 1 zone) |
Vegetation types, Ecological zones, etc. (to be specified by Region, results of aggregation procedure) | |
Tropical |
All months without frost: in marine areas over 18°C |
Evergreen and semi-evergreen rainforest |
Wet (Ar) |
0 – 3 months Dryb |
|
Moist semi-deciduous and deciduous forest |
Wet (Aw1) |
3 – 5 months Dry |
|||
Dry forest, woodlands |
Wet (Aw2) |
5 – 8 months Dry |
|||
Dry savanna, thornbush |
Semi-Arid (BSh) |
Evaporation > Precipitation |
|||
Desert |
Arid (BWh) |
All months Dry |
|||
Mountain |
Approximate > 1000m altitude (local variations) |
||||
Sub-tropical (or warm-temperate) |
Eight months or more over 10°C |
Evergreen forest |
Humid (Cf) |
No Dry season |
|
Sclerophyllous forest and woodland |
Seasonally Dry (Cs) |
..... |
|||
Steppe |
Semi-Arid (BSh) |
Evaporation > Precipitation |
|||
Desert |
Arid (BWh) |
All months Dry |
|||
Mountain |
Approximate > ... |
||||
Temperate |
Four to eight months over 10°C |
Oceanic: broadleaf deciduous and mixed forest |
Oceanic (Do) |
Coldest month over 0° C Rainfall ? |
|
Continental: broadleaf deciduous and mixed forest |
Continental (Dc) |
Coldest month under 0° C Rainfall ? |
|||
Steppe/prairie |
Semi-Arid (BSk) |
Evaporation > Precipitation |
|||
Desert |
Arid (BWk) |
All months Dry |
|||
Mountain |
Approximate > 800 m altitude |
||||
Boreal |
Up to 3 months over 10°C |
Taiga forest (Coniferous) |
E1 |
||
Tundra woodland and sparse forest |
E2 |
||||
Mountain |
Approximate > ... |
Notes:
a Zonal vegetation: resulting from the variation in environmental, i.e. climatic, conditions in a north south direction.
b A Dry month is defined as the month in which the total of precipitation P expressed in millimetres is equal to or less than twice the mean Temperature in degrees Centigrade
Appendix 1: Participants List | ||
Prof. Dr Y Barkoudah |
Dr Marie-France
Bellan | |
Dr Udo Bohn |
Dr Neil Burgess | |
Dr Andrey N Filipchuk |
Dr. Harry Hirvonen | |
Ms Xiangping Li |
Dr. Xiaojun Li | |
Dr. John Morrison |
Dr. Alex Korotkov | |
Dr. Galina
Ogureeva |
Dr. Ole
Ostermann | |
Dr. Dominique Richard |
Dr. Anatoly
Shvidenko | |
Dr. Henk Simons |
Dr. Karn Deo Singh | |
Brad Smith |
Dr. Philip Tickle | |
Dr. Joseph Tosi |
Dr. Doug Williamson | |
Dr. Jinhua Zhang |
Professor Du Zheng | |
Dr. Zhil-Liang Zhu |
Dr. Susan Iremonger
| |
Dr. Mark Collins |
Dr. Igor Lysenko |