Only One-Fifth of the World's Forests is Frontier Forests
3/15/97
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Headline: Only One-Fifth of the World's Forests is Frontier
Forests
Source: The Washington Post
Date: 3/15/97
Copyright 1997: The Washington Post Company
WHAT ON EARTH? A WEEKLY LOOK AT TRENDS, PEOPLE AND EVENTS
AROUND THE WORLD
EARTH'S LAST FRONTIERS
Half the forests that blanketed the earth 8,000 years
ago have fallen to the ax, torch, bulldozer or chain
saw, much of it in the past three decades. According to
a just completed study of 126 countries, 76 nations have
lost all of their "frontier forests" -- large tracts of
natural forest ecosystems capable of supporting wide-
ranging animals, such as elephants and bears. In almost
all of the other countries, frontier forests are under
serious threat.
What is left
Only one-fifth of the world's forests still qualify as
frontier forest.
Three countries -- Russia, Canada and Brazil -- contain
almost 70 percent of the world's remaining frontier
forests, and half of this forest area lies in the far
north, where resource-extraction costs are high.
Outside the largely inhospitable northern boreal
forests, 75 percent of the remaining frontier forests
are threatened and may well be significantly degraded in
the next five to 10 years.
Logging, including that by multinational corporations,
is the most serious threat to the remaining large tracts
of frontier forests. Agriculture and land clearing
endanger 20 percent of threatened frontier forests.
Frontier forests
. . . are refuges for global biodiversity.
. . . store tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide -- at
least 433 billion metric tons -- that might otherwise
become greenhouse gases; they maintain regional water
cycles, the global climate and soil integrity.
. . . provide a livelihood for 50 million people.
Boreal, or northern, woods make up the largest
proportion of frontier forests.
Proportion of remaining frontier forests under moderate
or high threat from logging, mining, roads and other
infrastructure, agricultural clearing, excessive
vegetation removal, by region:
Europe 100%
Central America 87
Africa 77
Australia, New Zealand,
Papua New Guinea 76
Asia 60
South America 54
North America 26
Russia 19
SOURCE: World Resources Institute