Forest Area and Change
Total forest area includes both natural forests and plantations. Total Forest
is defined as land with tree crown cover of more than 10 percent of the ground
and area of more than 0.5 hectares. Tree height at maturity should exceed 5
meters. These forest statistics are based primarily on forest inventory information
provided by national governments. In the case of the tropical region, inventory
information is supplemented by a remote sensing survey. If only limited or out-dated
inventory data are available, combination of linear projections and expert opinion
techniques were applied to fill in data gaps.
View full technical notes here
Natural forest area is the total area of forest composed primarily of indigenous
(native) tree species. Natural forests include closed forest, where trees cover
a high proportion of the ground and where grass does not form a continuous layer
on the forest floor (e.g., broadleaved forests, coniferous forests, and bamboo
forests), and open forest, which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO) defines as mixed forest/grasslands with at least 10 percent
tree cover and a continuous grass layer on the forest floor. Tree height at
maturity should exceed 5 meters. Natural forest is estimated by subtracting
plantation area from total forest areas.
View full technical notes here
Plantations area describes forest stands established artificially by afforestation
and reforestation for industrial and non-industrial usage. Reforestation does
not include regeneration of old tree crops (through either natural regeneration
or forest management), although some countries may report regeneration as reforestation.
Many trees are also planted for non-industrial uses, such as village wood lots.
Non-industrial plantations include those established for fuelwood production,
soil protection, amenity or other purposes. They do not include plantations
of agro-forestry crops, such as rubber and oil palm. The data presented here
reflect plantation survival rate as estimated by FAO. Tree height at maturity
should exceed 5 meters.
View full technical notes here
Total dryland land area is the total terrestrial area falling within three
of the world’s six aridity zones—the arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid
zones. These areas are especially vulnerable to land degradation. In drylands,
the ratio of average precipitation to average evapotranspiration, called the
aridity index, is between .05 and .65 (excluding polar and sub-polar regions).
The East Anglica University Climatic Research Centre used climate surfaces to
define aridity zone boundaries for the globe.
View full technical notes here
Change in forest area is the total percent change in both natural forests and
plantations between 1990 and 2000. Total forest is defined as land with tree
crown cover of more than 10 percent of the ground and area of more than 0.5
hectares. Tree height at maturity should exceed 5 meters. In many cases, FAO
projected forward or backward in time to estimate forest area in the two reference
years and calculate change in area over the decade.
View full technical notes here
Original forest as a percent of land area refers to the estimate of the percent
of land that would have been covered by closed forest about 8,000 years ago
assuming current climatic conditions, before large-scale disturbance by human
society began. Figures are based on a map of estimated forest cover developed
by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC). This map was developed by
WCMC based on numerous global and regional biogeographic maps.
View full technical notes here
Forest area in 2000 as a percent of total land area is calculated by dividing total forest area (see above) by total land area.
Sources
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2001. Global
Forest Resources Assessment 2000--main Report. FAO Forestry Paper No. 140. Rome:
FAO. Data available on-line at http://www.fao.org/forestry/foris/webview/forestry2/index.jsp?siteId=101&langId=1UNEP/GRID.
United Nations Environment Program/Global Resource Information Database. 1991.
Global digital data sets for land degradation studies: a GIS approach. Prepared
by U. Deichmann and L. Eklundh. GRID Case Study Series No. 4. UNEP/GEMS and
GRID. Nairobi, Kenya. Bryant, D., D. Nielsen and L. Tangley, "The Last
Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge", (World Resources
Institute, Washington, DC, 1997).
Forest Area by Canopy Cover
Area of forest with canopy cover greater than 10% shows the amount of a country's
land area that is at least 10% covered by the crown of a woody species. Area
of forest with canopy cover greater than 25%, 50%, and 75% shows the amount
of a country's land area that is at least 25, 50, or 75% covered by the crown
of a woody species. Canopy cover is the vertical projection of a tree's outermost
perimeter, including small openings in the crown. Areas reported here are gathered
via satellite data by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
instrument over several months in 2000. The percent tree cover data are derived
from an automated algorithm depicting percent tree crown cover for each 500
meter pixel based on a year of MODIS data inputs.
View full technical notes here
Sources
University of Maryland (UMd) Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF). 2002. MODIS
500m Vegetation Continuous Fields Percent Tree Cover. Available online at http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/data/
. Data by country were processed by UMd for the World Resources Institute. Ecosystem
Areas By Type Total land area is the total area of the country, including area
under inland water bodies, obtained mainly from the United Nations Statistical
Division.
View full technical notes here
Ecosystem areas by type were measured by the Global Land Cover Characteristics
(GLCC) project using satellite images in conjunction with ancillary data. The
satellite data were measured by a Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR),
with a resolution of 1 X 1 km. Ancillary data include (1) a digital elevation
model of the ecological factors that govern natural vegetation distribution;
(2) ecoregions data to to stratify vegetation by seasonal impacts; and (3) maps
of soils, vegetation, and land cover enabling post-classification refinement.
The GLCC study classified vegetation and other land cover types into one of18
categories, originally defined by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
(IGBP) (please see http://www.igbp.kva.se/ for details). WRI's country profiles
have combined these 18 original cateogories into the 6 larger classifications
described below:
View full technical notes here
Forests include all areas dominated by evergreen or deciduous trees with a canopy cover of greater than 60% and a height exceeding 2 meters. Both broadleaf and needleleaf trees are included. Shrublands, savannah and grasslands include lands dominated by woody vegetation less than 2 meters tall and with shrub canopy cover greater than 10%. The shrub foliage can be either evergreen or deciduous. This category also includes savannas and grasslands with herbaceous and other understory systems. These lands may have a tree or shrub cover of less than 60%. Cropland and crop/natural vegetation mosaic. Croplands are lands covered with temporary crops followed by harvest and a bare soil period (e.g., single and multiple cropping systems). Perennial woody crops are classified as forest or shrub land cover. Cropland/natural vegetation mosaics are lands with a mosaic of croplands, forests, shrublands, and grasslands in which no one component comprises more than 60% of the landscape. Urban and built-up areas are covered by buildings and other man-made structures. This class was developed from the the Digital Chart of the World's "populated places layer" (Defense Mapping Agency, 1992). Sparse or barren vegetation; snow and ice. Barren and sparsely vegetated areas are lands of exposed soil, sand, rocks, or snow and never has more than 10% vegetated cover during any time of the year. Snow and ice covered areas are lands under snow and/or ice cover throughout the year. Wetlands and water bodies. Permanent wetlands are lands with a permanent mixture of water and herbaceous or woody vegetation that cover extensive areas. The vegetation can be present in either salt, brackish, or fresh water. Water bodies are oceans, seas, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. They can be either fresh or salt water bodies.
Sources
Loveland, T.R., Reed, B.C., J.F., Brown, J.F., Ohlen, D.O., Zhu, Z., Yang, L.
Merchant. J. 2000. Global Land Cover Characteristics Database (GLCCD) Version
2.0. Available online at: http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/glcc/globdoc2_0.html.
Forest Certification and Protection
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifies forests and plantations
in accordance with the ten FSC principles and criteria. Groups around the world
are accredited by the FSC to act as independent certification bodies. Full certification
of forest products involves two steps. First, an assessment of forest management
is made at the site to ensure that management practices will sustain the resource
and provide environmental goods and services. Second, chain of custody is traced
from forest, to processor, to distributors, to the final consumer to ensure
that only wood from the certified forests are being sold and delivered as FSC-certified.
Many companies that have certified forests also possess certified mills and
are distributors of certified wood as well. According to the FSC, all forest
products carrying their logo have been independently certified as coming from
forests that meet the FSC Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship. Certified
forests are categorized as natural forests, plantations, or mixed. Natural forests
are those where most of the principal characteristics and key elements of the
native ecosystems, such as complexity, structure and diversity are present.
Plantations are areas which result from the human activities of planting, sowing
or intensive silvicultural treatments, and lack most of the principal characteristics
and key elements of native ecosystems. According to FSC, certified plantations
should decrease the pressures on natural forests, have diversity in composition
in species and age classes, preferentially choose native over exotic species,
serve to improve soil function, fertility and structure, and have some proportion
of their area managed for the restoration of natural forest cover. Mixed natural
forest and plantations include large areas certified as one block that contains
both natural forests and plantations. Semi-natural areas are forests that have
some elements of both natural forests and plantations.
View full technical notes here
Percent of forests protected. Forest estimates were calculated by WCMC by compiling many national and regional data showing forest extent. The legends of these maps were harmonized into 15 different tropical and 11 non-tropical forest types for the globe, defined specifically for this study. Percent protected includes forest areas that fall within the protected areas in the world that are listed by IUCN - World Conservation Union as being within their management categories I-VI.
The forest type categories were split between "tropical" and non-tropical."
Tropical forests included all forests located between the Tropics of Cancer
and Capricorn. All other forests were put into the non-tropical categories.
Sparse trees and parkland are natural forests in which the tree canopy cover
is between 10-30%, such as in the savannah and steppe regions of the world.
View full technical notes here
Number of tree species threatened includes full species that are categorized
by IUCN as being critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable. Data are
from The World List of Threatened Trees, presenting the results of the first
survey of the conservation status of trees species worldwide. Figures are not
necessarily comparable among countries because taxonomic concepts and the extent
of knowledge vary. Some taxonomic groups of trees were not
evaluated, including tree ferns in the families Cyatheaceae and Dicksoniaceae,
tree species in the cycad families Cycadaceae and Zamiaceae, and arborescent
members of the Cactaceae family.
View full technical notes here
Sources
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002. Forests Certified
by FSC-Accredited Certification Bodies. Document 5.3.3. Oaxaca, Mexico, FSC.
Available online at: http://www.fscoax.org/principal.htm.
Iremonger, S., C. Ravilious, T. Quinton. 1997 "A statistical analysis of
global forest conservation." In A Global Overview of Forest Conservation
CD-ROM. Cambridge, U.K.: World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) and Centre
for International Forestry Research. S. Oldfield, C. Lusty and A. MacKinven
(eds.). 1998. Tree Conservation Database. From The World List of Threatened
Trees. Cambridge, U.K.: World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) and The
World Conservation Union (IUCN). Available on-line at http://www.wcmc.org.uk/trees/Background/country_stats.htm
Wood Production and Trade
FAO compiles forest products data from responses to annual questionnaires sent
to national governments. Data from other sources, such as national statistical
yearbooks, are also used. In some cases, FAO prepares its own estimates. Roundwood
production refers to all wood in the rough, whether destined for industrial
or fuelwood uses. All wood felled or harvested from forests and trees outside
the forest, with or without bark, round, split, roughly squared, or in other
forms such as roots and stumps, is included. Wood that is harvested for charcoal
production is also included. All wood production data refer to both coniferous
and nonconiferous species.
View full technical notes here
Wood fuel production refers to all roundwood used as fuel for purposes such
as cooking, heating, or power production. It includes wood harvested from main
stems, branches and other parts of trees. It also includes wood intended for
charcoal production (e.g., pit kilns, and portable ovens). FAO data include
only wood from direct sources such as natural forests, plantations, and other
wooded land, such as homesteads and roadsides. FAO data do not currently include
wood fuel from indirect sources such as industrial by-products derived from
primary and secondary wood industries, recovered sources (wood waste from construction
sites demolition, packaging etc.), and black liquor (derived from by-products
of the pulp industry). FAO wood fuel estimates are partly based on household
consumption surveys dating from the 1960s and per capita consumption estimates
from the 1980s. Estimates are updated in line with population growth.
View full technical notes here
Industrial roundwood production comprises all roundwood products other than
fuelwood and charcoal. It includes sawlogs or veneer logs, posts, pitprops,
pulpwood, and other roundwood industrial products. All wood production data
refer to both coniferous and nonconiferous species..
View full technical notes here
Wood-based panel production includes the following commodities: veneer sheets,
plywood, particle board, and compressed or non-compressed fiberboard. All wood
production data refer to both coniferous and nonconiferous species.
View full technical notes here
Paper and paperboard production is the amount of primary paper and paperboard
produced, even though a portion of it may immediately be consumed in the production
of another product. Paper and paperboard includes newsprint, printing and writing
paper, packaging paper, household and sanitary paper, and other paper and paperboard.
All production data refer to both coniferous and non-coniferous species.
View full technical notes here
Recovered paper production describes the amount of waste and scrap of paper
or paperboard produced in a given country in a given year. This commodity includes
paper and paperboard which has been used for its original purpose and residues
from paper conversion, including waste and scrap collected for re-use as a raw
material for the manufacture of paper and related products. These definitions
follow those contained in Classification and Definitions of Forest Products,
FAO, Rome, 1982.
View full technical notes here
Average value of trade in forest products include imports and exports in industrial
roundwood, wood fuel, sawnwood, wood-based panels, pulp, paper and paperboard,
recovered paper, chips and particles, and wood residues. Figures are national
totals in millions of US dollars. Imports and exports are usually on a cost,
insurance, and freight basis (c.f.i.) (i.e., insurance and freight costs added
in). "In-transit" shipments are excluded wherever possible.
View full technical notes here
Forest products exports as a percent of the total value of all exports is calculated by dividing the total value of forest products exports by a country's total exports of goods and services. Exports of goods and services represent the value of all goods and other market services provided to the rest of the world. They include the value of merchandise, freight, insurance, transport, travel, royalties, license fees, and other services, such as communication, construction, financial, information, business, personal, and government services. They exclude labor and property income (formerly called factor services) as well as transfer payments.