FAO regularly reports on the world’s forest resources through the Forest Resources Assessment Programme (FRA), which is now actively facilitating the execution of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000). Along with the core information on the extent of forests and their changes, FRA 2000 will report on various ecological aspects of forests. These include the provision of information on the world’s forests by major ecological zone (EZ) for the year 2000 and a contribution to the understanding of the implications of forest change on biological diversity and carbon-cycling processes.
Priorities for FRA 2000 were developed with an international group of forest inventory and resource specialists in June 1996 at the Expert Consultation on the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 held in Kotka, Finland. This meeting, referred to as Kotka III, considered the reporting of forest information by EZ's as a high priority. Yet, the meeting also noted that a common internationally accepted ecological reporting scheme appropriate for FRA purposes and corresponding global ecological map appropriate for the task did not exist.
In order to address the challenges of the ecological zoning work, FAO is collaborating with both the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) in the United Kingdom and the EROS Data Center (EDC) of the United States of America. Present work includes refining the approach for map development, the collection of likely inputs and testing.
For FRA 2000 purposes, it was decided to adopt a simple but efficient methodology, which relies on the use of the best and most appropriate existing cartography. The vision of the final map is an aggregation of existing national and regional maps. Ecological classes or zones for the global map would be harmonised to a common standard.
The proposed FRA 2000 approach was tested by EDC in a pilot study on ecological zoning and mapping of forests for the USA and Canada. The comparative situation regarding the ecological maps from these countries has important similarities with other countries sharing national borders. Commonly, adjacent countries have ecological zoning maps appropriate for national purposes only and cannot be readily linked to the maps of a neighbouring country, as is the case for the USA and Canada. The pilot study demonstrates how FAO and its partners are proposing to manage such problems in order to create a single global map from independent national and regional maps. This pilot study was used as a background for testing the conversion of the Ecofloristic Zones maps of the tropics that were used in the FRA 1990, to the new scheme. This was carried out by LET, which was instrumental in authoring the original maps.
In order to review the proposed classification system and results of the pilot studies, and to ascertain how the methods should be applied to other regions, it was necessary to call together a group of experts from around the world. This was carried out in the Workshop on Global Ecological Zoning for FRA 2000, held in WCMC, Cambridge, UK, that is reported upon in this document. The aim of the meeting was to review FAO’s proposed approach, discuss alternatives and try to reach consensus on various critical issues concerning the ecological zoning map. Leading scientists and researchers from all of the major geographical and ecological regions of the world were invited to attend (Appendix 1). It was anticipated that final recommendations from the participating experts would provide important guidance for the overall exercise.
The Cambridge Expert Meeting and Workshop
A three-day expert meeting was organised and hosted by WCMC in Cambridge, England from 28 to 30 July 1999. The objectives of the workshop were:
In preparation for the workshop, participants were requested to identify, collect and review the existing authoritative ecological, ecofloristic or ecoregional maps from their respective countries, as well those appropriate for use in broad geographic regions. These materials were to be used in the workshop to illustrate the discussions of different EZ boundaries, vegetation types, forest extent and other related items.
