Forest resources

Overview

The Global Forest Resource Assessment 2000 (FRA2000) (FAO, 2001) estimates the total area of forests in the Asia-Pacific region^[1] to be slightly less than 700 million hectares. Thus the region has around 25 percent forest cover and constitutes 18 percent of the global forest estate. An additional 507 million hectares is classified as "other wooded land", comprising low shrubs or forest fallow.

Table 1: Forest cover change in the Asia-Pacific region 1990-2000

Data source: FAO, 2001

The most extensive forest areas in the region are in North Asia and the Advanced Industrialized Countries (AIC) (Table 1), with China and Australia dominating forest area statistics in these sub-regions. However, both of these countries have extensive areas of relatively sparse forest cover. The dense forests of Insular Southeast Asia have a total biomass that is 50 percent greater than forests in AIC countries and 68 percent more biomass compared with North Asia. The Pacific Islands, with 65 percent forest cover and Insular Southeast Asia (53 percent) have the highest proportion of land under forest, while the AIC (22 percent), South Asia (19 percent) and North Asia (17 percent) have relatively low forest cover.

Total forest area in the Asia-Pacific region declined by 10.5 million hectares during the 1990s, with an annual rate of change of -0.1 percent. Nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region reported annual deforestation rates greater than 1 percent for the period 1990-2000. In percentage terms, forest cover loss was most severe in several smaller countries such as Micronesia, which lost almost half its forests in the past decade, and Samoa, where forest cover declined by an average of more than 2 percent per annum.

Insular Southeast Asia was the sub-region with the highest rate of forest area loss, with major forest fires and clearance for agricultural purposes the most significant contributors to deforestation. Continental Southeast Asia also experienced substantial rates of deforestation. Conversely, North Asia's forest area increased by 1.0 percent during the 1990s, largely as a result of major afforestation efforts in China. A number of countries have introduced logging bans and/or export restrictions to control deforestation and promote conservation. China, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam are among the countries of the region that have imposed bans on logging of natural forests in selected areas or nation-wide.

Table 2: Current importance of forest resources in Asia and the Pacific

Source: Compiled from FRA2000 data

The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 3.3 billion people, or more than 55 percent of the global population. The diversity of the region can be emphasized by comparing the forest areas in the Asian portion of the region, where forests total 0.15 hectares per capita, against Oceania, which has 6.6 hectares of forests per capita. Thus, Asian forests are subjected to the greatest population pressure of any worldwide, while Oceania's forests are under the least pressure. Within both areas of the region, however, the forest situation varies markedly among countries (Table 2).

Forest inventories

The FRA2000 provides a summary table of national information on forest cover in terms of the latest available statistics, the methodologies used in compiling statistics and the compatibility of statistics with FRA2000 methodologies^[2].

Compared with other developing regions, Asian forestry statistics are relatively up-to-date, though statistics for Pacific Island countries - especially the smallest island countries - are comparatively dated. For 43 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, 18 countries have compiled forestry statistics since 1995. A further 18 countries most recently compilations of forestry statistics were made between 1990 and 1995. The remaining seven countries compiled statistics prior to 1990. Of these seven countries, five are small Pacific Island nations.

Most countries are using remote sensing technology as the primary means of estimating national forest cover. Mapping methodologies (i.e. remote sensing) are the primary data source for most recent statistics in 20 countries, with a further 18 countries compiling latest statistics based on expert estimates from a variety of data sources (often extrapolations on earlier inventories). Only Singapore has compiled its most recent forest cover statistics primarily through nation-wide field sampling (in 1990).

Most countries recognize the need for regular forest inventories, but capacities for implementation vary widely. Australia, for example, established a National Forest Inventory in 1988 to produce five-yearly "State of the Forest" reports and is currently developing a continental forest monitoring framework to aid in future monitoring and reporting requirements. Conversely, in Mongolia, although the Law on Forests requires a nation-wide forest inventory be conducted every 10 years, the absence of national capacity has created a 23-year lapse since the last inventory. Similarly, land-cover estimates derived for the Philippines in 1997 were merely derived from a model extrapolating data from the 1988 National Forest Resources Inventory Project. This situation constrains policy makers from evaluating the impacts of government policies, strategies, programmes and projects. In Nepal, a decision was announced in 2000 mandating inventory of community forests (based on annual increment), to ensure sustainable management. However, the government already recognizes that the capacity of forestry staff to actually carry out this task is very limited.

In many places where basic inventory data are available, the absence of other key information means the scope for effectively using inventories for planning is limited. For example, Chrystanto and Justianto (2002) notes:

Some progress on assessing forest cover has been made, however, a number of necessary information (sic) for decision-making purposes are still lacking, for example, reliable information on growth and yield of tropical tree species, also the status of non-timber forest products.

Only a few countries have implemented discrete national plantation inventories. New Zealand has published 17 editions of its National Exotic Forest Description (plantation inventory) dating back to 1983. Australia published its first National plantation inventory of Australia in 1997.

Fires, pests and diseases

Forest fires, pests and diseases are important causes of deforestation and forest degradation in the Asia-Pacific region. Information on losses suffered through fires, pests and diseases is scarce, though data on individual occurrences in some countries clearly demonstrate that major losses are sustained on a regular basis, particularly through fires.

In the period 2000-03, major forest fires occurred in Australia (December 2000-January 2001; January-February 2003), Indonesia (July 2001), and Mongolia (April 2000). In Australia, in 2003 several hundred bushfires burned across New South Wales, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory, with Canberra city badly affected. More than 400 homes were destroyed in Canberra and more than 10 000 fire fighters were involved in combating the blazes. Vast stretches of forests were destroyed in all three states. In Victoria, for example, at the peak of the blaze the fire extended along a front of 2 100 km and extended over more than a million hectares.

Extensive forest and steppe wildfires burned in Mongolia in April 2000. The total area burned was 2.87 million hectares. Fires are estimated to affect 14 percent of Mongolia's forest areas annually. A short growing season and slow tree growth means that these forests may take 200 years or more to regenerate.

Forest fire patterns in Indonesia show a strong correlation with the El Niño climatic effect, and tools and systems have been developed to relate fire risk to this pattern and to implement preventative measures commensurate with risks. Although strongly influenced by El Niño, forest fires - and the associated smoke pollution - are annual events in Indonesia. In July 2001, fires burned in Sumatra and in West and Central Kalimantan. The Indonesian cities of Medan and Pekanbaru were affected by smog, while serious smoke haze was also recorded in Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and southern Thailand.

Serious forest fires occurred in many other countries in the region. In Viet Nam, for example, thousands of hectares of natural forests in Southern Kien Giang and Ca Mau provinces were burned in one of the worst fires in Vietnamese history.

Table 3: Total burnt areas for countries in the year 2000

Data source: GFMC

Asia-Pacific fire statistics compiled by the Global Fire Monitoring Centre (GFMC)^[3] are shown in Table 3. A separate set of GFMC data, for selected countries in the region, shows an average total of more than 5 million hectares of forests is burned (in the selected countries) in the Asia-Pacific region every year. The omission, from this data set of averages, of large countries such as China, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea suggests that the average total area burned in the region annually is probably closer to 10 million hectares.

People cause most fires in the region. In many developing countries, fires are intentionally set to clear land for agriculture, including oil palm and other tree plantations. The devastating fires in Indonesia in 1997, for example, were largely blamed on farmers and plantation managers clearing land for agriculture and commercial oil palm plantations. In Bhutan, McKinnel (2000)^[4] identified the main sources of forest fires, as follows:

• escapes from agricultural or horticultural burning operations;

• lemon grass harvesters;

• cattle herders, both migratory and sedentary;

• travellers (mainly tossed cigarette butts);

• children playing with matches;

• road workers (from fires used to melt bitumen);

• campfires and warming fires;

• deliberate fires caused by villagers either to scare away wild animals or to kill trees for timber and firewood.

In June 2002, ASEAN countries signed a cross-border anti-haze pact under which each country will cooperate in developing and implementing measures to prevent fires and provide early warning systems. The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution binds member nations to curb smoke from annual forest fires that regularly cover the region in thick haze. A new regional agency - the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control - will coordinate efforts to fight haze pollution. Member nations have agreed to increase efforts to prevent slash-and-burn practices and to cooperate regionally in fighting forest fires.

Invasive species also have major impacts on vast areas of forest in the region each year. Invasive species have a long history of causing forest degradation, with many APFC member countries being severely affected. Transfer of invasive species commenced almost simultaneously with the beginning of ship-borne trade - with species such as rats inadvertently transferred from their home ranges to new ecosystems.

During colonial periods, large numbers of European plants and animals were intentionally introduced to Asia-Pacific countries, often with disastrous consequences. In Australia and New Zealand for example, the introduction of foxes, cats, rats, stoats, ferrets and weasels has had a detrimental impact on many species of native wildlife. Similarly, the introduction of ruminants such as deer, goats and pigs, throughout the Asia-Pacific region has caused substantial browsing damage in forests. Inadvertent introduction of animals has been equally detrimental. In the Pacific Islands, for example, the introduction of the brown tree snake has eradicated birdlife on several islands.

The introduction of plant species has been injurious in a number of cases in Asia-Pacific. Infestations of Imperata cylindrica grass extend across Southeast Asia, as well as affecting areas of the Pacific Islands, South Asia and China, and presently cover more than 50 million hectares in Asia. The South American water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) has invaded at least 50 countries, smothering waterways, killing off fish and altering ecosystems. In French Polynesia, Miconia calvescens was introduced to Tahiti as an ornamental plant in 1937; it now dominates the forests of over two-thirds of that island and has spread to other islands in French Polynesia (Raiatea, Moorea, Marquesas). Introduced to Hawaii in the 1960s, it is spreading rapidly on several islands (Hawaii, Maui, Oahu), and is now regarded as the worst threat to the rainforest watersheds in these areas. Various species of vines and creepers are invasive in the region (e.g. Merremia peltata) and particularly inhibit the regeneration of areas of disturbed forests.

Typical of invasive species in recent times is the inadvertent introduction of forest pests such as insects, fungi and diseases. In 1996, forests in DPR Korea were discovered to be harbouring the Siberian pine caterpillar (Dendrolimus sibiricus), with more than 4,500 hectares seriously affected (50 percent mortality). Inadvertently introduced crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) are indirectly destroying the rain forest on Christmas Island by exterminating land crabs that play an important role in sustaining the ecosystem.

Efforts to eradicate invasive species are likely to be costly. For example, during the past decade, New Zealand has suffered major infestations of white-spotted tussock moth (Orgyia thyellina) and painted apple moth (Teia anartoides), requiring extensive spraying programmes in Auckland city (at a combined cost of around US$40 million). The United States, which has suffered widespread infestation by the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis), Asian gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) and Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma ulmi), has initiated control programmes collectively costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The total economic cost of infestations runs into billions of dollars.

Countries in which potentially invasive species are endemic also face significant economic costs and risks in terms of quarantine measures enacted by other countries against their exports. For example, as a result of recent Asian long-horned beetle introductions into the United States and an increase in interceptions in both Canada and the United States, both countries implemented new plant health import requirements. As of January 1999, all solid wood cargo crating from China and Hong Kong must be heat- or chemically- treated to prevent further introductions of these pests.

Naturally, there is also an enormous range of endemic, or otherwise long-established, pests and diseases that cause enormous damage to natural forests and plantations throughout the region.