New WRI Report Notes Global Shifts in Extent and Quality of World's Forests
From World Resources Institute
December 27, 2000
WASHINGTON, DC - Forest areas in developed countries continue to increase slightly, while clearance for agriculture, development, and logging in developing countries are reducing their forests by at least 140,000 square kilometers every year.
But changes in forest area are only part of the story. Just as striking are the changes underway in many of the world's forests, as demands for timber, fuel, mineral resources, and food production alter the distribution, density and size of trees, and radically affect many other species that depend on forests.
"We have to think more about forest quality, not just forest quantity," said Emily Matthews, lead author of a new report on the world's forests, which was released today. The report, "Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems (PAGE): Forest Ecosystems," is the first attempt to analyze the condition of forests worldwide, based on their ability to provide a wide range of goods and services.
These goods and services include products such as timber and fuel, food and medicines, but also environmental services like water purification, carbon storage, and rich habitat for biodiversity.
The authors stress that, too often, forests are assessed too narrowly - in terms of their size and capacity to produce commercially valuable fiber. Here, there is good news. Production of all wood fiber products -- from logs to pulp -- is keeping up with demand.
The bad news, however, is that nearly 80 percent of it comes from primary or secondary-growth forests. As a result, irreplaceable ancient forests continue to be felled for fiber that could, in principle, be produced from plantations.
"We are not running out of trees, especially in the developed countries. We are, however, running through our old-growth or primary forests," said Matthews.
Much developed country wood production occurs in secondary-growth, or managed forests. The authors note an encouraging trend toward more environmentally and socially responsible forestry practices. Nature conservation and amenity value are increasingly important in forestry management decisions.
The report argues that commercial forestry still leads to significant changes in the ecology of forests. Trees tend to be younger, smaller, and more uniform in species composition. Vegetation under tree canopies is simpler or thinner and, as a result, the rich variety of birds, insects, mammals, plants and fungi that typically thrive in natural forests is reduced.
The WRI report points out that industrial wood plantations now supply just over 20 percent of total global fiber production. This share is expected to increase in the future, but the report warns that increased production from plantations will not necessarily decrease harvest rates in natural forests. "If the current economic incentive structure is not changed" note the authors, "we will continue to establish plantations and harvest from forests, including old-growth forests."
The authors recommend that governments aggressively switch policies to encourage production from plantations and intensive forest management in selected areas, and to discourage old growth harvesting. "Currently, many governments subsidize logging but not tree plantations," said Matthews.
An immense toll is also being taken on forests by road building, encroaching agriculture, and fires. The report presents a striking illustration of how roads, even in Central Africa where transportation systems are far less developed than in the West, have fragmented dense forest into smaller and smaller pieces.
"There is good evidence that many large species, such as elephants in Africa and jaguars in South America, are disturbed by roads, and try to avoid them. Even much smaller species can be inhibited in their breeding patterns, or cut off from vital food sources," said Matthews.
Fires are a natural phenomenon but, worldwide, fires started by humans now account for more than 90 percent of all wildland fires in forests and savannas. The WRI report cites new satellite data and studies that demonstrate that fires are increasingly affecting moist tropical forests, which have not burned in the past. The change is due both to dry conditions caused by El Niņo, and to clearance and fire-setting by farmers, ranchers, and commercial plantation owners.
In the wake of the recent failed Climate Change meeting in the Hague, which sought agreement on reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide, forest clearance and fires assume greater urgency. "Forests are the biggest natural 'sink' for carbon in the terrestrial biosphere," said Matthews. New maps in the report show that forests contain up to 1,000 billion tons or 40 percent of all the carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems. Much of it is in the great boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere, and the tropical forests of South America and Africa.
"While we can easily quantify the economic value of many forest products, that's not the case for the services they provide to humankind," said Norbert Henninger, project director of PAGE. "Ecosystems services such as the ability of forests to store carbon and regulate the climate, are difficult to quantify."
The PAGE report on forest ecosystems (http://www.wri.org/wri/wr2000) is the third in a series of five technical reports. Future reports will cover agroecosystems, and coastal areas. A report on grasslands was released early this month. Taken together, these reports are the first such comprehensive assessment of the state of the world's ecosystems.
The PAGE reports set the stage for the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (MEA) that will be launched next year by WRI, the United Nations, the World Bank, governments, and non-governmental organizations. The MEA is expected to fill in the data gaps identified by the PAGE reports through the participation of hundreds of scientists who will be mobilized for this $20 million, four-year effort.
For more information, contact:
Adlai Amor
Media Director
World Resources Institute
202 729 7736
aamor@wri.org
http://www.wri.org