THE GLOBAL FOREST RESOURCES ASSESSMENT 2000

Since 1951, FAO has regularly reported on the world's forest resources, in capacity of UN agency responsible for forestry and forest related issues, and in line with requests by its member nations. The global forest resources assessment programme (FRA) is carried out in cooperation with a number of national and international partners. The FRA coordination unit, based in the Forest Resources Division of FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy, is responsible for the overall management and coordination of the periodic assessments. Other units of the Forestry Department and in the FAO Regional and sub-Regional Offices contribute to FRA 2000 by supporting these efforts and by coordinating special studies related to thematic issues such as non-wood forest products, trees outside forests, fellings and removals, and forest biological diversity. The UN Economic Commission for Europe (FAO-ECE) contributes by coordinating information collection and analysis for developed temperate and boreal zone countries¹.

Up-to-date information, with a baseline of the year 2000 (FRA 2000), will be released at the 15^th Session of the Committee on Forestry (Rome, Italy March 2001). The information is based on available national reports, discussed over the past many years in a series of in expert meetings, scrutinised through expert advice and verified by countries concerned. Information on forest cover change is, additionally, supported by statistical sampling of the world's tropical forests through satellite remote sensing, which complements basic studies of the state and change of tropical forests at regional, ecological and pan-tropical levels.

FRA 2000 includes a set of country profiles, prepared for each country, which contain i.a. a general description of geography and the ecological setting; forest status in terms of coverage, volume and biomass; protection status in terms of legally protected areas; assessment of trends in forest cover change; and finally, a listing of major contacts and the sources and baseline data used in generating the information. In addition, geo-referenced maps of forests, protected areas and ecological zones, are made available within the framework of FRA 2000.

According to FRA 2000, forests in the year 2000 covered 27 per cent of the world's total land area. The distribution of forests between countries and regions was highly variable. Almost one half of the area of countries in Europe and South America was forested, whereas the corresponding area in Africa, Asia and Oceania was less than one-fifth.

The total area of forests was approximately 3 500 million hectares, including natural forests and forest plantations, these latter accounting for about 3 percent of the total. About one half of the world's forests were located in tropical and sub-tropical regions, predominantly in developing countries. The other half was found in temperate and boreal regions, predominantly in industrialized countries.

Between 1980 and 1990, deforestation amounted to 15.5 million hectares per year. While deforestation was still high in the 1990s, the trend towards slowing down of deforestation rates, noted already in the interim assessments published by FAO in 1997 and 1999, was ultimately confirmed. Accordingly, data released at the XXI IUFRO World Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August 2000, indicated that the rate of deforestation in tropical countries, where most deforestation was taking place, was at least 10 percent less in the past ten years than that documented for the 1980s.

The major causes of deforestation were the expansion of subsistence agriculture in Africa and Asia and large economic development programmes involving resettlement, agriculture and infrastructure in Latin America and Asia. In addition to deforestation, which refers to permanent loss of forest cover, un-managed harvesting of industrial wood and fuelwood, overgrazing, fire, insect pests and diseases, storms and air pollution continued to cause at times severe degradation of all kinds of existing forests.

On the international level, a number of international agreements and conventions, notably those dealing with biological diversity and climate change, require country-based quality inputs to underpin models and analyses, as well as to support regional and global monitoring. On the national level, reliable information is needed for policy development and implementation and for regular monitoring and reporting, with a view to improving prevailing practices. To meet such needs, FRA 2000 has helped develop comparable, comprehensive, reliable and authoritative baseline data on forest resources and related parameters for all countries and regions of the world.

Lessons learned during the execution of FRA 2000 will provide a sound basis for the development of new and better ways of generating reliable information on the world's forests. Experience to date points to the urgent need for both industrialized and developing countries to improve their national assessments through the implementation of comprehensive, continuous forest inventory practices, and to broaden surveys beyond traditional timber inventories to provide information needed to underpin sustainable forest management, taking into consideration productive, protective, social and environmental functions of forests and forest ecosystems.

Note. The results of FRA 2000 are released on the FAO Forestry Department website as they became available, including country data on forest cover and change, by country. Results of the Special Studies will also be made available on the website, as they become available. All key information will also be published in printed form in the course of 2001.