2.1. THE EXPERT MEETINGS
2.2. FAO AND FAO - FRA PUBLICATIONS ON FOREST PLANTATIONS FROM 1980 TO 2000
2.3. FAO AND FAO - FRA DATA-SETS ON FOREST PLANTATIONS FROM 1980 TO 2000
Different conferences and expert meetings were held during the period 1970 - 2000 to design and improve the methodologies for the Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) 1980, 1990 and 2000. Among them, the most important were the United Nations (UN) conference on the human environment held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1973 and the three expert consultations held in Kotka, Finland, in 1987, 1993 and 1996.
· UN Conference on the human environment held in Stockholm One of the most important recommendation of the Stockholm Conference was that UN [...] “Secretary General take steps to ensure that continuing surveillance, with the co-operation of Member States, of the world’s forest cover shall be provided for through the programme of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations” [...] and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In accordance with the recommendation, FAO and UNEP undertook a joint programme of forest resources assessment within the framework of the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS). The programme that was initially intended to cover all developing countries was later restricted to tropical forest countries considered more urgent and important to monitor than the temperate forests. As result, FAO and UNEP released in 1981 the “Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project (in the framework of GEMS)” also known as FRA 1980.
· Kotka I Following the exercise of the Forest Resources Assessment 1980, an expert meeting was called by FAO and supported by FINNIDA and FAO-ECE. The Meeting was held at the Kotka College of Forestry and Forest Industry in 1987. More than 50 experts from several countries and international governmental organisations attended the meeting and presented results of National Forestry Inventories that were taken as main guidelines for the Forest Resources Assessment 1990.
· Kotka II The second meeting in 1993 was held immediately after the presentation of the results of the Forest Resources Assessment 1990 for Tropical Developing Countries. It was recommended that FRA not only focus on tropical developing countries but expanded the scope to the entire world. It was also agreed that FAO Rome focus on the assessment of developing countries and FAO-ECE Geneva would provide the results of the assessment of industrialised countries. Finally FAO Rome was to compile the overall global results.
Kotka II can be considered as a milestone because FRA was required, for the first time, to produce a document based on the compilation of two assessments done with different methodologies: the FAO-ECE methodology and the FAO - FRA methodology. The combination of information collected with different methodology led to some differences.
The first was related to the quality of the information: FAO-ECE office already had historical time series for almost all the developed countries derived by secondary sources from questionnaires. FAO-FRA had limited information on developing non-tropical countries but most information collected was based on primary sources.
The second was more related to the differences, between industrialised and developing countries, in the concept of forest plantation. The industrialised countries (principally European) prefer not to use the term forest plantations as they mainly “re-plant” natural forests after harvesting with multiple species in different age classes. This conceptual difference is still not well resolved and causes misunderstandings in estimation of the total forest area (plantation and natural).
· Kotka III A third meeting, the “Expert Consultation on Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000”, was held in Kotka in 1996. Thirty-two countries sent representatives to the meeting, as did various NGOs and International Organisations. Following Kotka III, a FRA 2000 strategic plan was developed, which provided the overall conceptual framework for the assessment. Recommendations made in Kotka III were then endorsed by the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) in 1997 and became part of the baseline requirements for the background of FRA 2000.
2.2.1. “Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project (in the framework of GEMS)” - FRA 1980
2.2.2. “Tropical Forest Resources” - Forestry Paper 30
2.2.3. “Growth and Yield of Plantation Species in the Tropics” - W/R0867
2.2.4. “Interim Report on the State of Forest Resources in the Developing Countries” - Interim report FO:MISC/88/7
2.2.5a. “Forest Resources Assessment 1990 Tropical Countries” - FRA 1990, Forestry Paper 112
2.2.5b. “Forest. Resources Assessment 1990” - FRA 1990, Country Briefs
2.2.6. “Forest Resources Assessment 1990 Non-Tropical Developing Countries Mediterranean Region” - FRA 1990, FO:MISC/94/3
2.2.7. “Forest Resources Assessment 1990 Non-Tropical Developing Countries” - FRA 1990, Technical Report, FO: GCP/INT/474/FRA, FO: GCP/INT/474/FRA
2.2.8. Forest Resources Assessment 1990 - Tropical forest plantation resources - FRA 1990, Forestry Paper 128
2.2.9. Forest Resources Assessment 1990 - Global Synthesis - FRA 1990, Forestry Paper 124
2.2.10. State of World’s Forests (SOFO) 1995 - SOFO 1995
2.2.11. State of World’s Forests (SOFO) 1997 - SOFO 1997
2.2.12. Tropical Forest Plantation Areas 1995 GCP/INT/628/UK - Unpublished
2.2.13. State of World’s Forests (SOFO) 1999 - SOFO 1999
2.2.14. The Global Outlook for Future Wood Supply from Forest Plantations - Paper Prepared for the 1999 Global Forest Products Outlook Study - Working Paper GEPOS/WP/03
2.2.15. Forest Resources Assessment 2000 Web site: http://www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp - FRA 2000
2.2.16. State of World’s Forests (SOFO) 2001 SOFO 2001
2.2.17. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 - Main Report - FRA 2000, Forestry Paper 140
During the last 20 years FAO, and in particular FAO - FRA, have produced several papers and reports on assessments of natural forest and forest plantation areas. The table below shows the list of reports and data published on forest plantations and a brief description of each.
Table 1: FAO Publications Containing Forest Plantation Resource Data, 1980 - 2000
| Nr. |
Year of publishing | Title |
Common name | Publication
code |
|
1 | 1981 |
Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project (in the framework of GEMS).
This publication is composed by 4 different volumes: |
| ----------------------- |
| 1a |
1981 | Forest
Resources of Tropical Africa: |
| UN 32/6.1301-78-04, Tech.
Rep. 2 |
| |
| Part 2: Country Briefs |
FRA 1980 | |
| 1b |
1981 | Forest
Resources of Tropical Asia | |
UN 32/6.1301-78-04, Tech. Rep. 3 |
|
1c |
1981 | Forest
Resources of Tropical Latin America |
| UN 32/6.1301-78-04, Tech.
Rep 1 |
| 2 |
1982 | Tropical
Forest Resources | |
Forestry Paper 30 |
|
3 | 1983 |
Growth and yield of plantation species in the tropics |
| W/R0867 |
| 4 |
1988 | An
Interim Report on the State of Forest Resources in the developing countries |
Interim Report | FO:MISC/88/7 |
| 5a |
1993 | Forest
Resources Assessment 1990 Tropical Countries |
FRA 1990 | Forestry Paper
112 |
| 5b |
1994 | Forest
Resources Assessment 1990 - Country Briefs |
| ----------------------- |
| 6 |
1994 | Forest
Resources Assessment 1990 Non-tropical developing countries Mediterranean region, |
FRA 1990 | FO:MISC/94/3 |
| 7 |
1995 | Forest
Resources Assessment 1990 Non-tropical developing countries |
FRA 1990 | Technical
Report |
| 8 |
1995 | Forest
Resources Assessment 1990 - Global Synthesis |
FRA 1990 | Forestry Paper
124 |
| 9 |
1995 | Forest
Resources Assessment 1990 - Tropical forest plantation resources |
FRA 1990 | Forestry Paper
128 |
| 10 |
1995 | State
of World’s Forests (SOFO) 1995 |
SOFO 1995 | |
| 11 |
1997 | State
of World’s Forests (SOFO) 1997 |
SOFO 1997 | |
| 12 |
1997 | Tropical
Forest Plantation Areas 1995 |
| GCP/INT/628/UK - Unpublished |
| 13 |
1999 | State
of World’s Forests (SOFO) 1999 |
SOFO 1999 | ----------------------- |
| 14 |
2000 | The
global outlook for future wood supply from forest plantations - Paper prepared
for the 1999 Global Forest Products Outlook Study |
| Working Paper GEPOS/WP/03 |
| 15 |
2001 | FRA
2000 Web site: http://www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp |
FRA 2000 | |
| 16 |
2001 | State
of World’s Forests (SOFO) 2001 |
SOFO 2001 | ----------------------- |
| 17 |
2001 | Global
Forest Resources Assessment 2000 - Main Report |
FRA 2000 | Forestry Paper
140 |
FRA 1980 (Appendix 1, reference column 1 and Appendix 2) was carried out between 1978 and 1981. It was the first comprehensive reporting of figures and country profiles for 76 tropical countries representing 97 percent of the estimated land areas of all the tropical developing countries. The publication was comprised of 4 volumes: 2 for Africa, 1 for Asia and 1 for Latin America. The work was structured in a set of detailed country briefs and figures were also presented in regional summary tables.
The definitions of forest plantations adopted by FRA 1980 were:
- forest stands established artificially by afforestation on land which previously did not carry forest;Plantations did not include stands established by artificial regeneration and essentially similar to those they were replacing.- forest stands established artificially by reforestation on land which carried forest within the previous 50 years or within living memory and involving the replacement of the previous crop by a new and essentially different crop.
FRA 1980 developed a very complex system of classification (see table below). Forest plantations were classified into:
|
Hardwood |
|
Hardwood fast-growing |
|
Softwood |
|
Industrial |
|
Non-industrial |
Table 2: Classification on Forest Plantations Adopted by FRA 1980
| PHL1 |
Industrial plantations of hardwood species other than fast-growing |
| PHH1 |
Industrial plantations of fast growing hardwood species |
| PH.1 |
Industrial hardwood plantations |
|
PS.1 | Industrial softwood
plantations |
|
P..1 | Industrial plantations |
| PHL2 |
Non-industrial plantations of hardwood species other than fast-growing |
| PHH2 |
Non-industrial plantations of fast growing hardwood species |
| PH.2 |
Non-industrial hardwood plantations |
|
PS.2 | Non-industrial
softwood plantations |
|
P..2 | Non-industrial
plantations |
|
PHL-PHL1+PHL2 | Plantations
of hardwood species other than fast-growing |
|
PHH-PHH1+PHH2 | Plantations
of fast-growing hardwood species |
|
PH-Ph.1+PH.2 | Hardwood
plantations |
|
PS-PS.1+PS.2 | Softwood
plantations |
|
P-P..1+P..2 | All Plantations |
The report provides the methodologies adopted by FRA 1980 and a condensed summary of the findings (Appendix 1, reference column 2). Figures are only provided for the three main regions: Africa, Asia and Latin America. Forest plantation area is provided at year 1980 and extrapolated to 1985.
Although it was published later, this report (Appendix 1, reference column 3) contains the methodology used to assess the plantations for FRA 1980. It is a very comprehensive report useful as background paper.
The interim report on the State of Forest Resources in the developing countries was published in 1988 to complete and update the work done by FRA 1980 (Appendix 1, reference column 4). The new report was comprised of tables and included a further 65 new developing countries primarily non-tropical developing countries and small islands. The Interim Report 1988 is fully compatible with FRA 1980 as it uses the same definitions.
The interim report was also taken as a preliminary attempt to extend the FRA work to all developing countries as adopted by FRA 1990 and FRA 2000.
In 1993 FRA 1990 released the first data set covering 90 developing tropical countries in the Forestry Paper 112 (Appendix 1, reference column 5 and Appendix 2). This report is the first of a set of publications that were released progressively as further data and information became available.
The Definitions for forest plantations adopted by FRA 1990 were:
- forest stands established artificially by afforestation on land which previously did not carry forest;Plantations were also classified into:- forest stands established artificially by reforestation on land which carried forest within the previous 50 years or within living memory and involving the replacement of the previous crop by a new and essentially different crop.
Although definitions are the same as for FRA 1980, they do not include the breakdown of species in hardwood and softwood and FRA 1990 reported figures (without classification) on status and change of total plantations.
Country briefs (Appendix 1, reference column 6 and Appendix 2) contained the same data sets published in Forestry Paper 112 with the difference that data was structured in briefs for each country. Original data source, together with a FRA estimate of the reliability of the source and the data, was also provided. The different steps followed by FRA 1990 to derive the final results are therefore shown in a more comprehensive way.
As also mentioned in the above chapter, Kotka II expressed the need for FRA to expand to a Global Assessment for developing and industrialised countries. During the same meeting it was recommended that FAO-ECE Geneva would collect and provide information for the developed countries while FAO would compile data for all the non-tropical developing countries.
FRA 1990 started work on the non tropical countries in late 1993 and in 1994 the first “informal” publication was released in form of “FO:MISC Paper” (Appendix 1, reference column 7 and Appendix 2) that reported only on 18 non tropical Mediterranean developing countries including countries of the Mediterranean region and Near East.
Definitions are the same as FRA 1990 although they are not mentioned in the paper. Forest plantations were not reported according to industrial and non-industrial classification.
In 1995 FRA published the results of the assessment done in the non-tropical developing countries. 10 countries were added to the 18 countries provided in the former document for a final total of 28 non-tropical developing countries (Appendix 1, reference column 8 and Appendix 2). Definitions adopted for forest plantations were the same as earlier assessments. Among the findings, FRA 1990 highlighted the lack of reliable and timely forestry information existing in most of the non-tropical developing countries (average data provided was about 10 years old). Within this framework data concerning forest plantations were even weaker and FRA 1990 only provided estimates on status and change of total forest plantation area.
Although this paper was published in 1995 (Appendix 1, reference column 9 and Appendix 2), immediately after FP 124 “the Global Synthesis” (see below paragraph 2.2.9.), the data contained was incorporated as the final data set from FRA 1990 and findings were incorporated into the Global Synthesis.
This paper is particularly important because, for the first time introduced the concepts of: Reported (or Gross) planted areas, Reduction factor and Net plantation area
- The “Reported (or gross) planted areas” is the planted area as stated from official institutions;The new concept of “Net plantation area”, = Gross plantation area*0.7, was applied to all FAO forest plantation data published after this paper to SOFO 1999 (Appendix 1, references columns 10 - 13). The concept of Gross Plantation Area used previously was temporarily discontinued.- “Reduction factor” is the percentage of the total number of seedlings planted that have actually survived in a given area.
The use of the reduction factor was particularly needed to reflect the losses that occur in plantation programmes especially in countries where the reported planted area is calculated by converting seedlings distributed or planted in different spatial patterns into area by a theoretical number. The overall reduction factor was estimated at 0.7 as an average of the regional reduction factors for Africa (0.7), Asia (0.61) and Latin America (0.84).
- “Net plantation area” as the “[...] actual existing plantation area, which has been established successfully, estimated from plantation surveys as inventory or survival percentage”. Net area corresponds to the actual area of the stocked plantations excluding failed harvested or doubly counted plantations and is calculated by applying the reduction factor to the reported areas
The practice in presentation of “net plantation area” created an inconsistency in comparing previous documents, and in particular, previous 1990 publications.
Forestry Paper 124, “The Global Synthesis” (Appendix 1, reference column 10 and Appendix 2) was the last publication delivered by FRA 1990 and contained the most updated information for year 1990. Although this paper reports on 115 tropical developing, 28 non tropical developing and 36 industrialised countries, net area for forest plantation figures was only provided for all the developing countries with the exception of China (Appendix 2b) whose net plantation area was considered 100% of the gross. This occurred because FAO and FAO-ECE had different definitions for forest and forest plantations, and therefore figures were reported as status and change for total plantations.
Forest plantation figures from Forestry Paper 124 can not be directly compared with previous plantation data sets since such comparison would be between gross and net data.
The SOFO publications are provided by FAO every two years and are a compilation of the most updated statistics delivered by the Forestry Department. Within SOFO, FRA is responsible to deliver the data concerning forest cover status and change.
FRA 1990 provided statistics for SOFO 95 (Appendix 1, reference column 11 and Appendix 2). They are a subset of the statistics provided in FP124 and refer only to total forest area as sum of natural forest and net plantation area.
For the purpose of SOFO 97 (Appendix 1, reference column 12) FRA made an update of the figures at year 1995 that included a number of countries whose information came later than FRA 1990. The FRA 1990 definitions were adapted and the update involved only natural forests and not forest plantations. The figures for forest plantations remained the same as for 1990-95.
Due to the lack of information on forest plantations, it was decided only to publish figures related to status and change (1990-95) of “Total Forest Area” comprising the new updated figures on natural forest and the net plantation area 1990.
In order to fill the gap made on plantations with SOFO 97 FAO prepared an update of forest plantations area at year 1995 (Appendix 1, column reference 14 and Appendix 2). The report contained data sets on new figures on plantations collected through questionnaires and through extrapolations of FRA 1990 figures. Unfortunately, it came too late to be published and it was not used for SOFO 97.
The paper did not specifically define forest plantations but used the same definitions as Forestry Paper 128.
Figures were broadly reported according to hardwood and softwood species and specifically by species composition. An estimate for industrial forest plantation area was also provided at country level and, for the first time, statistics on coconuts, rubber and oil palms were also included.
Following a similar methodology used in FP 128 (see paragraph 2.2.8), the report provided forest plantation statistics both as gross and net areas. More analysis was conducted to estimate specific reduction factors at country level. Country data were listed according to reported forest plantation area estimates and calculated through the application of unique reduction factors elaborated at country or at regional level.
The final regional averages for reduction factors were estimated at: Africa (0.76), Asia (0.66) and Latin America (0.85).
Although unpublished, this data set was used as the baseline for “The global outlook for future wood supply from forest plantations - Paper prepared for the 1999 Global Forest Products Outlook Study”.
SOFO 99 (Appendix 1, reference column 13) contained almost the same data as SOFO 97. It provided statistics on Total Forests (as the sum of natural forest and net plantation area). The few changes from SOFO 97 were related to adjustment of country boundaries due to political events since 1997.
Baselines for this paper (Appendix 1, reference column 15) were “Tropical Forest Plantation Areas 1995 - GCP/INT/628/UK - Unpublished” (see paragraph 2.2.12) and the temperate and boreal component of FRA 2000 done by the UN-ECE and FAO offices in Geneva (UN, 2000).
Although the purpose of the paper was not to define the terms of forest plantations the author made a review of the different definitions adopted by the two baselines. The tables, provided in the annexes, concerned estimated area planted during the last 55 years according to industrial and non-industrial plantations and also potential scenarios on roundwood productions for forest plantations.
The estimates provided in this paper can not be directly compared with the other data sets and especially with the FRA 2000 gross forest plantation results. Although published in 1999, the report is mainly based on net forest plantation areas calculated according to variable country and regional reduction factors provided in “Tropical Forest Plantation Areas 1995 - GCP/INT/628/UK - Unpublished”.
In January 2001 the FRA 2000 data sets were made available via the FAO-Forestry web-site (Appendix 1, reference column 16 and Appendix 2). It was the first output delivered by FRA 2000 and contained all the new concepts adopted by FRA and previously guided by the Kotka III meeting held in 1996.
The work done by FRA 2000 consists of a set of detailed country briefs compiled for all the world’s countries and updated with useful information on forestry and in particular on forest cover.
FRA 2000 was the first FRA to employ a homogeneous set of definitions of forests for all countries and territories.
FRA Rome, for the developing countries, and FAO-ECE Geneva, for the developed, jointly conducted the FRA 2000 exercise. In accordance with Kotka III, definitions were reviewed to better match the FRA and the ECE’s data sets. The definitions adopted by FRA 2000 referred to the gross area, included rubber plantations (Hevea brasiliensis) and cork oak stands (Quercus suber) and refined the concept of afforestation and reforestation. Forest plantation area data sets were broken down by species, purpose and ownership on a country basis.
A separate table provided available statistics on oil palm and coconuts as non-forest plantations resources. Where direct data was not available extrapolation was used to estimate the area of forest plantations at year 2000.
FRA 2000 did not provide estimates of changes 1990-2000 for plantations and changes were only provided for total forest area as the sum of natural forest and forest plantation area.
The definitions of forest plantations adopted for FRA 2000 were:
Forest stands established by planting or/and seeding in the process of afforestation or reforestation. They are either:Purpose of forest plantations was classified according to:- of introduced species (all planted stands), orNew plantations were defined as:- intensively managed stands of indigenous species, which meet all the following criteria: one or two species at plantation, even age class, regular spacing.
- afforestation for artificial establishment of forest on lands which previously did not carry forest within living memory and- reforestation for artificial establishment of forest on lands which carried forest before.
Ownership of forest plantations was classified according to:
The data set provided in SOFO 2001 (Appendix 1, reference column 17) only refers to total forest plantation area figures estimated by FRA 2000. No further breakdown of species has been provided.
The FRA 2000 main report (Appendix 1, reference column 18 and Appendix 2) is the most current and comprehensive publication delivered by FRA.
The FRA 2000 main report contains all the methodologies used, the definitions adopted and, in annexes, all the tables produced by FRA. The table concerning forest plantations provides the status of area planted at year 2000, the annual planting rate and the breakdown according to major species composition. No breakdown on use and ownership is provided.
There have been four data sets created during the latest 20 years for plantations and most of them overlap in terms of date:
