1. DEFINITION OF TERMS

Table I: Land Categories

Forests:

All lands bearing vegetative associations dominated by trees of any size, exploited or not, capable of producing wood or other forest products, of exerting an influence on the climate or on the water regime, or providing shelter for livestock and wild life.

Includes:

1. Lands from which forests have been clear-cut or burned, but which will be reforested in the foreseeable future;
2. Public and private forest of any size;
3. Forest of slow growth and of dwarfed or stunted forms — e.g., subalpine;
4. Bamboo lands;
5. All land which is not part of a recognized fallow rotation of the shifting cultivator, and which will return to forest when he abandons the land; also lands under shifting cultivation on which forest production is maintained concurrently — e.g., Acacia senegal in Sudan;
6. Savanna types with density averaging at least 0.05;
7. Wattle (Acacia, spp.) plantations;
8. Tree nurseries;

9. Forest roads.

Excludes:

1. Areas occupied by orchards of fruit or nut trees, and plantations for non-forest crops such as rubber and cinchona;
2. Areas occupied by individual trees or lines or groups of trees — for example, along roadways, canals and streams, or in city parks, private gardens and pastures — too small to be managed as forests;
3. Areas of windbreak and shelterbelt trees that are in small groups or narrow strips, too small to be managed as forests;
4. Lands primarily managed for permanent agriculture;

5. All land which is part of a recognized fallow rotation of the shifting cultivator, or which will not return to forest even though it bear a light timber crop before being cut, burned over and re-cultivated.

Accessible forests:

All forests which are within reach of exploitation by existing waterways, roads, railways, or other means of transportation, or to which movable cableways can be constructed.

Inaccessible forests:

All forests, whether or not potentially exploitable, which are not yet within reach of exploitation because of the lack of transportation systems.

Agricultural lands:

Arable lands, orchards, vineyards, meadows, pasture, other grassland. Includes agricultural land producing concurrent tree crops, and lands under shifting cultivation which are part of a recognized fallow rotation.

Brush lands:

Lands chiefly occupied by shrubs and not classifiable as forests. Includes lands under shifting cultivation which are not part of a recognized fallow rotation, and which will return to brushlands when abandoned.

Other lands:

Deserts, sand dunes, rock surfaces bearing little or no vegetation, also swamps and bogs too wet to be included in other land classes. Includes areas of towns and roads.

Table II: Classification of Accessible Forests

Publicly owned forests:

State forests:

Forests owned by national, state, and cantonal governments, government-owned corporations, and Crown forests.

Other:

Forests belonging to towns, villages and communes. Includes any other publicly owned forests not specified in “State forests”.

Privately owned forests:

Forests owned by enterprises processing forest products. Forests owned by other enterprises. All forests owned by individuals, families, or corporations engaged in agriculture as the primary enterprise.

All privately owned forests not included elsewhere, including forests owned by institutions (religious, educational, etc.)

Forests in use:

All forests from which industrial wood, fuelwood and/or other forest products are extracted, including afforested and reforested areas, and forests which are now being used intermittently (40-year intervals or less). Excludes forests yielding only fuelwood in very small quantities or where fuelwood cutting, or extraction of other forest products, is merely casual or occasional.

Unexploited forests:

All forests which are not now being utilized for extraction of industrial wood, fuelwood or other forest products.

Productive forests:

All forest land which is now producing or is capable of producing usable crops of wood or other forest products such as resin, latex, tanbark, cork, bamboo, etc.

Unproductive forests:

Forest lands which, although accessible, are considered incapable of producing usable crops of wood or other forest products. Includes all accessible areas for which existing knowledge of forest type, density or site conditions rules out any reasonable prospect of exploitation and regardless of whether or not cutting is restricted or prohibited.

Permanent forests:

Permanent forests intended to remain in forestry use.

Table III: Classification of Forests in Use

Coniferous forests:

Forests in which 75% or more of the volume is of coniferous species.

Non-coniferous forests:

Forests in which 75% or more of the volume is of nonconiferous species.

Mixed woods:

Forests not classifiable as coniferous or non-coniferous.

Open areas:

Clear-cut areas, fire-breaks, etc., are included.

Bamboo stands:

Areas occupied by bamboo growth which can be estimated separately from the forests (e.g., bamboo plantations, bamboo re-growth on deforested areas, etc.).

Forests managed with working plans:

Forests are considered as “managed” if their management is conducted on a working plan designed to ensure the maintenance of the forest crop.

Good cutting practice:

Fellings are carried out in conformity with the requirements of good silviculture the land is left with an adequate potential growing stock of desirable species under conditions for vigorous growth; adequate planting, tending, thinnings, protection from fire, and control of grazing are undertaken, where appropriate.

Fair cutting practice:

Fellings are carried out in conformity with the requirements of good silviculture: the land is left with a fair potential growing stock of desirable species under conditions for reasonable growth; planting, tending, thinnings, protection from fire, and control of grazing are not undertaken on an adequate scale.

Poor or destructive cutting practice:

Fellings are not carried out in conformity with the requirements of good silviculture: the land is left with a limited potential growing stock of the desirable species and the forest composition is likely to deteriorate both in quality and quantity; protection from fire and control of grazing are not undertaken.

High forest:

Forests entirely composed of trees of seedling origin. Includes other kinds of forests in process of transformation into high forests.

Coppice with standards:

Forests composed of trees of seedling origin and stool-shoots. Includes coppices in process of transformation to coppices with standards.

Coppice:

Forests entirely composed of stool-shots or root-suckers.

Density:

Density is estimated on the basis of how completely the tree crowns fill the space in the stand, measured as a ratio of the area of vertical projections of the crowns to the total area of the stand. Sites capable of supporting only open stands will thus never have 1.00 density even though the tree-stand may be the maximum that can be grown on the site. Includes all species, commercial and non-commercial.

Table IV: Growing Stock of Forests in Use

Growing stock:

Estimated total volume of standing timber (industrial wood and fuelwood, excluding bamboo), growing in the forests in use.

Conifers:

All woods derived from trees classified botanically as Gymnospermae — e.g., fir (Abies) parana pine (Araucaria), deodar (Cedrus), ginkgo (Ginkgo), larch (Larix), spruce (Picea), pine, chir, kail (Pinus), etc.

Non-conifers:

All woods derived from trees classified botanically as Angiospermae — e.g., maple (Acer), alder (Alnus), ebony (Diospyros), beech (Fagus), lignum vitae (Guiaicum), poplar (Populus), oak (Quercus), sal (Shorea), teak (Tectona), etc.

Trees of sawtimber size:

Trees of a size sufficient to permit conversion of at least one log into sawnwood. The size varies considerably from country to country, but is often accepted as over 25 cm. in diameter 1.3 m. above ground level.

Tables V and VI: Gross Increment, Net Growth and Allowable Cut in Forests in Use

Gross increment:

Average volume of annual increment of all trees in the forests in use.

Losses:

Average volume of roundwood rendered unusable annually by forest fires, shifting cultivation, insect pests, tree diseases, natural thinning, wind, snow, avalanches, other climatic factors, etc.

Net growth:

Average annual net growth equals gross increment less losses.

Allowable cut:

Total amount of roundwood which can be cut during a year on the basis of national forest policy established to maintain sufficient growing stock to meet specified growth levels.

Table VII: Annual Harvest of Wood and Bamboo

Fellings:

Average volume of all trees recorded as felled annually in the forests in use, whether removed from forests or not.

Removals:

Average recorded volume removed from forests in use.

Other removals:

Average volume of all trees estimated to have been removed annually from the forests in use but not included as “recorded” because the timber was used by the forest owner and thus did not enter market channels, harvesting was by forest right-holders, removals were unauthorized or illegal, or for similar reasons the removed volumes were “unrecorded”. Includes also removals from trees outside the forests —i.e., from lands classified as non-forested, and from accessible forest lands other than those classified as “in use”.

Table VIII: Removals in Forests in Use

Industrial wood:

Includes the following roundwood: sawlogs, veneer logs, logs for sleepers, pulpwood, pitprops, other industrial wood.

Fuelwood:

Wood to be used as fuel for purposes of cooking, heating, production of power, etc. Includes wood for charcoal pit kilns and portable ovens and may include wood from trunks and branches.