The purpose of this page is to provide the web user with a comprehensive description of the natural woody vegetation existing in a specific country.
The woody vegetation description web page is structured according to the FRA 2000 land cover classification and natural forest definitions (see working paper No.1).
The FRA 2000 classification allows standardised and comparable reporting on the world's forest resources and does not replace existing national classifications. In fact, this page provides the framework where national definitions are integrated, thus allowing comparable reporting and national particularity.
Each woody vegetation description draws its information from reliable sources: national forest inventories, specialised national and international studies, reports, surveys, etc. These data sources are listed in the references section at the end of the web page, for further consultation.
The web page is divided into the following five sections:
Introduction;
closed forests subdivided into: broadleaved, coniferous, mixed and bamboo/palms (FRA definitions);
open forests divided into the same former subcategories (FRA definitions);
other wooded land subdivided into shrubs and forest fallow system (FRA definitions); and
references.
This section is intended to concisely (between one to three paragraphs of 5 lines each) introduce the main features of the country's woody vegetation description i.e. number and name of main forest formations and types. The introduction will vary according to the quality and quantity of the information available, e.g.
Example No. 1
Introduction
Six major forest formations are recognised in Guyana, each one with one or more distinctive types, identified by the dominance of certain species. The following descriptions are based on the detailed vegetation study by Fanshawe (1952).
Example No. 2
Introduction
The northern part of the coastal region has the greatest extension of forests, with relatively large areas of productive, floristically homogeneous forest. According to the Forest Map of Peru (Malleux, 1975) these forests may be divided into "mangroves, closed dry forest", "dry savanna forest and scrub". The central and southern part has more arid conditions, with large stretches of desert.
The forest region, located in the north-east, is totally covered by natural forests. These forests are for the most part environmentally classified as "tropical moist forest", "subtropical moist forest", "tropical wet forest" and "subtropical wet forest".
The following descriptions are based on the results of forest surveys and are presented following the classification system of the Forest Map of Peru.
The term "Closed forests" defines natural forests where trees in the various storeys and the undergrowth cover a more than 40 percent of the ground and where there is not a continuous dense grass layer. (See working paper No.1)
This section has the purpose of providing a physiognomic description of closed forests, according to their composition by species groups. Therefore, "Closed forests" is used here only as a wide definition enclosing four types of closed forests:
broadleaved forest
coniferous forest
mixed forest
bamboo/palm formations.
This subsection aims at describing the natural closed forests with a predominance more than 75 percent of tree crown cover of trees of broadleaved species.
The broadleaved subsection must provide the following data:
forest type or category/subcategories according to the data source(s): inventory, study, report;
location within the country, including elevation (in metres), rainfall (in millimetres), extension in ha (if available);
forest description, including: number and kind of vegetation storeys; height; density; indicator species; soil and degree of alteration if any.
To make the text easy to read, the data may be distributed in separate paragraphs, possibly of five lines each, i.e. one paragraph may contain interrelated data, like the location, elevation, rainfall and extension. The next paragraphs may contain the forest description in terms of vegetation storeys, height, density, indicator species, soil, etc. Text length will depend on the country's forest composition and complexity, but it will mainly vary according to the quantity and quality of information available, e.g.
Jamaica
Closed forest
Broadleaved
Wet limestone forests
This community develops on limestone rock in inland areas where the rainfall is over 1 900 mm and up to 3 800 mm, mainly between 300 and 750 m elevation. The largest area occurs in the Cockpit country, so called because of the circular depressions (dolinas) caused by karst phenomena. Other areas are located at Mt. Diablo (1 080 m) and Dolphin Head (540 m). Burning and cultivation have affected many areas.
The forest is made up of two types that on the bare limestone rock and that on the valley floor. The canopy of the forest is more or less uniform and closed, though never dense, with a height of 15 to 18 m, except in the "cockpits" where emergent trees of Terminalia latifolia and Cedrela odorata are 25 to 30 m high. A dense sub-storey of small trees, 13 m high on average, may be distinguished. Undergrowth is generally lacking.
Climbers, Bromeliaceae, Piperaceae and tree ferns are present. The trees are generally evergreen. The true climax in the small deep valleys is the Terminalia-Cedrela association. Other large trees that are common are santa maria, Calophyllum jacquinii; Pithecellobium alexandri; breadnut, Brosimum alicastrum; sweetwoods, Nectandra sp. and bulletwoods, Dipholis sp.
3.2.2.2 Coniferous forest
This subsection describes the natural forests with a predominance more than 75 percent of tree crown cover of trees of coniferous species.
The same content and style elements included in the former broadleaved forest description are valid for this subsection, i.e.
forest type or category/subcategories according to the data source(s): inventory, study, report;
location within the country, including elevation (in metres), rainfall (in millimetres), extension in ha (if available);
forest description, including: number and kind of vegetation storeys including height, density, indicator species, soil, degree of alteration, if any.
To make the text clear and concise, distribution of the data into five line paragraphs is recommended, e.g.
Mexico
Closed forest
Coniferous forest
Conifer and broadleaved forests
The "Conifer and broadleaved forests" category of the National Forestry Survey covers: tree communities belonging to a cold temperate climate, marked by few dominant species of various genera of the Coniferales order, such as Pinus and Abies, combined with various species of the Quercus genus. Cupressus and Juniperus are also found in combination with these communities.
Ninety percent of the pine forests grow between 1 500 and 3 000 m where the average annual rainfall is 600 to 1000 mm. The remaining 10 percent corresponds to tropical-type pine forests (Poocarpa, P. strobus var. chapiensis, at low altitudes, and P. patula, P. pseudostrobus, P. tenuifolia, P. ayacahuite and P. hartwegii at higher altitudes) and stands of P. cembroides. Most mature pine forests are moderately open with a well-developed herbaceous layer.
Other conifer forests host Abies religiosa and seven species of Abies, distributed in smaller patches of Pseudotsuga and Picea, Juniperus forest or woodland, and Cupressus forest. There are 35 species of pine in the country.
3.2.2.3 Mixed Forests
This subsection describes forests in which neither coniferous, nor broadleaved, nor palms and bamboos, account for more than 75 percent of the tree crown cover.
The same content and style elements included in the former broadleaved and coniferous forests descriptions are valid for this subsection i.e.
forest type or category/subcategories according to the source(s) of information: inventory, study, report;
location within the country, including elevation (in metres), rainfall (in millimetres) extension in ha (if available);
forest description, including: number and kind of vegetation storeys including height, density, indicator species, soil, degree of alteration, if any.
Five line paragraphs gathering interrelated data are recommended, e.g.
Colombia
Closed forests
Mixed forests
Forests falling under the UNESCO classification of "tropical ombrophilous lowland forest", account for over 85 percent of Colombia's mixed tropical forests. They are found in two major locations: the Amazon basin and the Pacific coast from the border with Ecuador in the south, to the Urabα Gulf.
Formations are also found in the central Magdalena region and in the border region with Venezuela.
Submontane and montane forests and "tropical ombrophilous cloud forests" are found, although covering small areas, on the western slopes of the Western Cordillera and the eastern slopes of the Eastern Cordillera.
A lower type of mixed forest referred to as "fairly open forest" in the PRORADAM classification (PRORADAM, 1978) is found in the Amazon area and probably corresponds to the campinarana formations of Brazil, which are relatively closed forests lower in height than most mixed forests.
A detailed description of these forests can be found in Espinal and Montenegro (1963).
3.2.2.4 bamboo/palms
This subsection describes forest on which more than 75 percent of the crown cover consists of tree species other than coniferous or broadleaved species (e.g. tree-form species of the bamboo, palm and fern families).
The same content and style elements included in the former broadleaved, coniferous and mixed forests descriptions are valid for this subsection, i.e.
vegetation type or category/subcategories according to the source(s) of information: inventory, study, report;
location within the country, including elevation (in metres), rainfall (in millimetres), extension in ha (if available);
forest description, including: number and kind of vegetation storeys including height, density, indicator species, soil, degree of alteration, if any.
Concise description divided into 5 line paragraphs of interrelated data is recommended, i.e.
Bolivia
Closed forest
Bamboo/palms
Palm savanna
The largest stretch of palm savanna occupies a vast area in Beni department and is marked on Hueck΄s map as "palm savanna of Santa Cruz and Trinidad". The two dominant palm species are Acrocomia totai and Attalea princeps. This savanna is mixed with gallery forests and patches of evergreen forest. Smaller areas of palms are found within the Chiquitania (Orbignya phalerata) and also in the Bolivian part of the Pantanal swampland in the far east of the country.
The term "open forests" defines forests with discontinuous tree layer covering between 10 percent and less than 40 percent of the land. This definition is used here only as a title enclosing three different types: broadleaved, coniferous and mixed. (See working paper No.1)
The same style elements included in the closed forest section/subsections are valid, i.e. concise description of forests gathering interrelated information in paragraphs of approximately 5 lines. Text length may vary according to the quantity and quality of the data.
Basic content required is the same as in former closed forest description.
forest type or category/subcategories according to the source(s) of information: inventory, study, report;
location within the country, including elevation (in metres), rainfall (in millimetres), extension in ha (if available);
forest description, including: number and kind of vegetation storeys including height, density, indicator species, soil, degree of alteration, if any, e.g.
Example No. 1
Paraguay
Open forests
Broadleaved
The largest open forests in Colombia are found to the north of the middle Guaviarι and lower Vichaca rivers in Boyaca and Meta Departments and the Vichada region in the east of the country (the north-eastern plains) (Espinal and Montenegro, 1963; Draeger, 1974).
Defined as "tall grassland with woody broad-leaved evergreen synusia" with a cover of between 10% and 40% in the UNESCO classification, this savanna belongs to the "tropical dry forest" life zone and is the result of repeated burning of the original forest, which is now found only in the wettest ravines. The rest of the plains are covered with this open forest and grass savanna without trees or shrubs.
This section describes land either with a crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of 5-10 percent of trees able to reach a height of 5 m at maturity in situ; or a crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10 percent of trees not able to reach a height of 5 m at maturity in situ (e.g. dwarf or stunted trees); or with shrub or bush cover of more than 10 percent.
"Other wooded land" includes a smaller subdivision defined as shrubs. This subdivision refers to vegetation types where the dominant woody elements are shrubs, i.e. woody perennial plants, generally of more than 0.5 m and less than 5 m in height on maturity and without a definite crown. The height limits for trees and shrubs should be interpreted with flexibility, particularly the minimum tree and maximum shrub height, which may vary between 5 and 7 metres approximately.
(See working paper No.1).
The same data required for the former open and closed forest descriptions are to be included here, i.e.
vegetation type or category/subcategories according to the data source(s): inventory, study, report;
location within the country, including elevation (in metres), rainfall (in millimetres), extension in ha (if available);
vegetation description, including: number and kind of vegetation storeys, height, density, indicator species, soil, degree of alteration, if any, e.g.
Jamaica
Other wooded land
Shrubs
Arid coastal dry limestone scrub forest
For a distance of over 30 km along the south coast from Morant Bay to Portland Ridge there is a rim of this vegetation in an area with total rainfall below 800 m/year and a 6 to 10 month dry season. The xerophytic vegetation is tolerant of salt spray and sweeping winds. It is littoral woodland on coastal limestone made up of hard-leaved dry limestone shrubs together with cacti, halophytes and salt-resistant trees. Dildo, Cercus spp., forms stems up to 7 m high.
This section was devised to provide the web page user with all data sources compiled to describe the natural woody vegetation of a specific country.
The references section is written according to the FAO editorial guidelines for references, i.e.
All references must include: name of author(s), year of publication, title, place of publication and publisher (for books), journal title, volume and pages (for articles).
Give the names of all authors of a work in bibliographies.
Where there are more than three authors in the bibliography, abbreviate to et al. after the first name. This rule applies to any reference in the text, but not in the Bibliography.
When an author has written more than one work in the same year, use a, b, etc. to differentiate, e.g. 1996a, 1996b.
Use the ampersand (&) between the names of the last two authors in the bibliography but use and in the text.
Titles of books and journals are italicised (do not use inverted commas). Titles of articles and chapters are not italicised.
Following are some examples of bibliographic entries:
Haines, S. & Hunter, C. 1996. Exocortis virus of citrus. Citrus Ind., 49(1): 13-17.
The authors' names are in bold. The article title is in roman and lowercase except for the initial capital letter. The journal title is in Italics, abbreviated (unless the title consists of one word only, e.g. Science) and with initial capital letters. Data are ordered as follows: volume number, (issue number in parentheses) followed by a colon and a space, page numbers.
Sawyer, J.O. & Lindsay, A.A. 1971. Vegetation on the life zones in Costa Rica. p. 30-43. Indianapolis, U.S.A. Indiana Academy of Science.
The authors' names are in bold. The book title is in Italics with initial capital letter. Note that p. 30-43 = page 30-43, whereas 160 pp. = 160 pages (plural). The city (place of publication) comes before the publisher. The city and the country are necessary data, unless the city is the capital of the country. Finally, the publisher's name is included.
FAO. 1968. Some aspects of the sawn timber industry, by J.K. McVeight. FAO Report No. TA 2560. Rome.
Note that FAO should be the corporate author of all FAO copyrighted material.
In the case of a corporate author, it is not necessary to repeat the name of the organization publisher.
Tree species must be indicated by their scientific name, in Italics, the genus is capitalised, while the species is not, e.g. Crescentia cajete, Curatella americana.
Whenever it may be possible, it is recommended to include the local common name of trees species along with the scientific name. Common names are not written with capital letters: bulletwood, sandbox tree, etc.
The woody vegetation description web page is structured according to the FRA 2000 land cover classifications, namely: forest, other wooded land, plantations and natural forests definitions like: open forest, closed forest, subdivided into broadleaved, coniferous, mixed, bamboo/palms and shrubs.
None of the former definitions are capitalised, except when initiating a paragraph, after period or full stop.
Moreover, the woody vegetation description integrates all the national definitions and scientific classifications indicated by the forest inventories, studies, surveys etc. used as data source, i. e. national definitions; UNESCO forest classification; Holdridge's life zone classification etc.
National definitions are enclosed in double quotation marks (") only when they are introduced for the first time.
Holdridge's life zones are always enclosed in double quotation marks (").
None of the former definitions are capitalised, except when initiating a paragraph, after period or full stop.
