Annex 1
Country Tables

This section provides assessment results at country level and the basic background information on derivation of the results. Below is a listing of the table headings. Each Table consists of 3 parts, one for each region, namely (a) Africa, (b) Asia and the Pacific and (c) Latin America and the Caribbean. At the end of the third part is the grand total for all regions.

These tables contain standardised country figures obtained by re-appraising the country information following the definition, classification and the reference date accepted for the global assessment. This is necessary because inventory specifications generally differ from country to country. The standardisation is required to secure a consistent global picture. It is not intended to replace the original country information which remain a unique source of reference.

The thematic content of the country tables are the following:

1. Socio-economic data

2. State of forest inventory

3. Area of natural forests and plantations

4. Forest area change during 1981–90

5. Forest harvesting

6. Land area and forest cover by ecological zone

7. Area of forest formations

8. Annual deforestation during 1981–90 by forest formations

As mentioned in the chapter on methodology, the updating of results in the present system of assessment is an almost continuous process. A new set of global tropical tables can be produced at suitable intervals incorporating all available new data combined with existing information. In fact, new and improved information is already available for some of the countries just after finalisation of the current set of tables. These new data, and others which will become available in due course, will be included in FORIS and used in improving the model and processing of the updated results.

Table 1 shows selected socio-economic indicators of the countries studied including land area, population and gross national product. The land area reported is taken from the FAO Production Yearbook. Population data were obtained from FAO Statistics Division, and GNP data from World Bank statistics.

Table 2 describes the state of forest inventory. For each country the total number of national forest surveys/inventories, the reference data used as baseline and the reliability classes of state and change assessment are reported. The surveys listed here are the existing and reliable information on forest cover that were available to FRA 1990 by end of February 1992. The reference years reported refer to actual dates of the imagery used and not to the date of publication of the results. Three reliability classes used are (1) High, (2) Average, and (3) Low which are defined as follows:

STATE ASSESSMENT:

Reliability 1 : Forest inventories based on high resolution satellite data (LANDSAT TM, SPOT) or aerial photos, supplemented by extensive field checking or sample survey.

Reliability 2 : Forest inventories based on medium resolution satellite data (typically LANDSAT MSS) with limited ground truthing.

Reliability 3 : Surveys or maps based on heterogeneous material like vegetation maps, land use surveys, etc. generally at coarse resolution and often out of date. The reliability class 3 is synonym of insufficient information and need for a reliable baseline in future.

CHANGE ASSESSMENT:

Reliability 1 : This class is assigned to the countries for which two or more comparable (in terms of classification of the forest types) inventories exist, and the observed forest change is used to perform a ‘local fit’ of the model parameters. For this class the model is used merely as an adjustment function for standardising the reference dates to 1980 and 1990.

Reliability 2 : This class is assigned to the countries for which some partially reliable multi-date observations are available, which are used to control the model estimates.

Reliability 3 : Countries with no reliable multi-date information. The estimate of change is based on model(s).

Table 3 provides the natural forest and plantation areas at end 1990 and the estimated biomass for natural forests by country and subregion. The natural forest area for the standard reference year 1990 was calculated using the most recent reliable inventory for each subnational unit as a baseline. The model was then used as adjustment function to extrapolate the results for 1990. The results at subnational level were finally totalled by country. The table shows the forest area at end 1990 in thousands of ha, the percentage of land covered with forests and the hectares of forest per capita.

The areas of plantations have been derived from a special study carried out by the project in cooperation with the Royal college of Forestry, Umeå, Sweden. Also for plantations the land cover percentage and the hectares per capita are shown. Due to the small magnitude of the figures for plantations, the per capita values are expressed in hectares per thousands inhabitants.

The table also shows total forest biomass, average biomass per hectare and per capita. The forest biomass presented in the table refers to Total Above Ground Biomass (TAGB) and it was calculated using the Volume Over Bark (VOB) data contained in the FORIS 1980 and FORIS 1990 volume data. The VOB is the volume per hectare of all the stems with dbh greater or equal to 10 centimeters over bark. The average VOB per hectare is then converted to TAGB using appropriate expansions factors. The average per ha and total values of TAGB were computed separately for closed and open forest formations and the per hectare values tabulated represent weighted averages.

Table 4 relates to the forest cover change data (1981 to 1990) and gives natural forest cover for the standard reference years 1980 and 1990, the area annually deforested in thousands of ha, the annual rate of change, at compound rate, and the deforestation per capita using the average population of the decade. Similarly, for forest plantations the area in 1990, the area annually planted, the rate of change and the per capita values are reported. Finally the ratio between area annually deforested and planted is given. This column is left blank when the ratio can not be calculated because one or both values are equal to zero or negative or very small.

Table 5 provides information on forest harvesting of closed broadleaved forests including average logging intensity, total area annually logged divided into areas previously logged and newly logged and the fraction of total closed broadleaved forests annually logged.

Table 6 presents the land area and total forest cover by ecological zone. For each country, the six ecological zones are reported, together with their respective land area and forest cover. The scope of this table is to contrast the present versus the potential vegetation. The natural forest area has been classified into six main ecological zones using GIS techniques.

Table 7 gives the breakdown of the forest cover in 1990 by ecological zones. For each country and subregion/region the forest formation area is reported. The forest formations are defined according to the potential vegetation classes derived from ecological zones map. The percentage values indicate the relative importance of each forest formation in a geographical region.

Table 8 provides the break-down of annual deforestation by forest formations. The area deforested annually in each formation class and the share of total deforestation of the geographical region are listed.

Table 1a: Socio-economic data

Table 1b: Socio-economic data

Table 1c: Socio-economic data

Notes: - numbers may not tally due to rounding
- ε indicates a very small value
- n.a. indicates that no data are available; sub-totals and totals were computed excluding the missing numbers

Table 2a: State of forest inventory

Notes:   - the vegetation map of Africa, compiled by ICIV for FRA 1990 has been used as one assessment with reference year 1980 for the countries where no surveys or inventories were available.

Table 2b: State of forest inventory