Status & issues of the World Forests

Dr Devendra PANDEYFmr DG, Forest Survey of India

Fmr PCCF and Prl Secretary Forests, Arunachal Pradesh

Email ID: dpandeyifs@rediffmail; pandeyd30@gmail.com

MCT course of IFS officers -Phase IV Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy , Dehradun

26 June 2013

The interest in the world’s forests has grown due to awareness of their role in the global carbon cycle

Mitigates climate change by reducing C emission due to deforestation and forest degradation and increasing C stock due to afforestation, conservation and SFM.

Role of forest in conserving biodiversity and providing livelihood support for a large proportion of population has received prominence .

OVERVIEW OF WORLD’s FORESTS RESOURCE

FAO of UN assesses world forest resource systematically and comprehensively every 5 years. Latest is of 2010. There are other agencies like JRC of European Commission, USGS, WRI etc. NOW China has also joined the race. FAO considers 7 thematic elements of SFM

-extent of forest resource

-forest biological diversity

-forest health and vitality

-productive function, -protective function

-socio-economic functions and legal policy and institutional framework

OVERVIEW OF WORLD’s FORESTS RESOURCE

OVERVIEW OF WORLD’S FOREST RESOURCE

World’s total forest in 2010 was about 4 billion ha or 31% of land area & per capita forests was 0.6 ha

The five most forest rich countries constitute 53% i. Russia – 809 mn ha ii. Brazil – 520 mn haiii. Canada- 310 mn haiv.USA - 304 mn hav. China- 207 mn ha

Other countries in hierarchy arevi. DR Congo- 154 mn ha vii. Australia- 149 mn haviii. Indonesia- 94 mn ha ix. Sudan – 70 mn hax. India - 68 mn ha

OVERVIEW OF WORLD’S FOREST RESOURCE

Around 13 million ha of forests were annually lost during 2000- 2010, mostly in tropical countries for agriculture & other purpose

The major loss has occurred in Brazil and Indonesia. About 4 million ha was lost in South America and 3.4 million ha in Africa

The net loss of forests has slowed down from 16 million ha per year during 1990-2000

There is overall increase of forests in Asian region mainly due to large scale afforestation efforts of China

The net loss of forests is 5.2 million ha

OVERVIEW OF WORLD’s FOREST RESOURCE

In Europe the status of forests is stable over the last 20 years, forest area extended but the focus of management shifted from productive to conservation

About 13% of the world forests are legally established as PAs

About 1% of the world’s forests are annually affected due to forest fire ( MODIS data) but affected area is severely under reported specially in Africa

In North America (USA and Canada) and in Russia there is a significant loss of forests due to forest fires and insects and pests.

Annual wood removal is about 3.4 billion m3 of which 43% constitute wood-fuel.

Systematic sample of 10 km x 10 km, satellite image extracts at each 1-degree intersection of latitude and longitude. About 13,000 samples excluding no data sites.

Globally, equivalent to a 1 percent sample of the Earth’s land surface.

A New Independent Remote Sensing Survey by FAODesign

The Landsat provides global coverage and a long time-series of acquisitions suitable for the detection of changes in tree cover. Majority of imageries were provided by USGS for 1990, 2000 & 2005.

A New Independent Remote Sensing Survey

• Partners FAO, USGS, JRC of European Commission and South Dakota University USA supported by countries.

• Launched in 2008 and took almost 4 years to complete

• Enhanced capacity in countries for monitoring, assessing and reporting on forests and land use changes

A new Independent Remote Sensing Survey by FAO

Distribution of Sample plots

Distribution of sample points, pantropics, RSS 2000

These results slightly differfrom FRA

Results of the Global RS Survey Results differ from FAO FRA assessments Worldwide, the gross reduction in forests;

-9.5 mn ha per year between 1990 and 2000 and

-13.5 million ha per year between 2000 and 2005. Reduction partially offset by gains due to afforestation and

expansion of natural forest

-6.8 million ha per year between 1990 and 2000 and

-7.3 million ha per year between 2000 and 2005. There is a net increase in boreal, temperate and sub-

tropical forests and net loss in tropical forests

Snow covered Boreal forests of Siberia -Russia

Distribution of boreal forests- Mostly in Canada, Alaska, Russia, Finland, Sweden,

Norway

Key issues of the World forests (source: State of World’s Forests 2011, FAO)

Regional trends on forest resources (extent)

The development of the sustainable forest industries

Climate change adaption and mitigation

Local values of forests for sustaining livelihood of local

communities including non-cash value of forests

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Dynamics of carbon stock in forest ecosystem is the most robust parameter for climate change mitigation.

Measurement of C- stock of forests and its dynamics over a period has become the priority activity.

Capacity of most of the developing countries has be to built in this area specially for implementation of REDD+ mechanism – major challenge

Global Overview of C-Stock in forests (source: FAO, FRA 2010 of 233 Countries /territories)- reliability level

180 countries reported on carbon in tree/woody biomass

72 countries included deadwood and

124 countries litter mostly default values (2.1 t/ha)

121 countries reported on soil carbon mostly the default

values as provided in the IPCC 2006 guidelines.

For filling the gaps for remaining countries and areas, FAO

estimated carbon stocks by taking the sub-regional

averages per hectare and multiplying these by the

respective forest areas.

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Global Overview of C-Stock in forests

(source: FAO, FRA 2010) Total C- stock in forest ecosystem = 652 billion tones C-stock in total biomass (all four pools) =360 billion tones C- stock in soil =292 billion tones C- stock per ha forest ecosystem =162 tones C- stock per ha in biomass = 90 tones C- stock per ha in soil =72 tones 44% in live biomass, 11% in deadwood and 45% in soil During 2005-10 C stock in forest biomass decreased

by 0.5Gt per year.

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Five World Heritage Forest sites having highest C density in biomass

(based on review of Biomass/carbon of 56 country reports)

Redwood National and State Parks of USA -573 t/ha (SOM 52 t/ha)

Olympic National Park of USA -419 t/ha (SOM 96 t/ha) Te Wahipounamu South West New Zealand –253 t/ha

(SOM 65 t/ha) Central Suriname Reserve of Suriname -227 t/ha (SOM 47 t/ha) Tongariro National Park of New Zealand -208 t/ha (SOM 65 t/ha)

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Level of variability in C stock in forests

High variability in C stock in biomass = 16 to 573 t/ ha

(high C density is found in West coast of USA/Canada in oceanic forests part and also in Redwood & Olympic NP USA)

Low variability in C stock of soil =25-132 t/ha

( high SOM lies in sub-tropical humid and temperate oceanic forests of Australia, tropical moist deciduous forests of Brazil, Lake Baikal, Virgin Komi Forests in boreal mountain forests of Russian federation)

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STATUS OF INDIA’s FOREST

India is among the few countries to have comprehensive operational system of forest cover monitoring

In addition to forest cover, tree cover (tree groves less than 1 ha in area) is also estimated

FSI undertakes these activities for the country biennially using remote sensing technology and results published in India State of Forest Report .

Twelve Reports (last in 2011) have been published so far

India’s Forest Resource

OVERVIEW OF INDIA’s FOREST RESOURCE

Area under different Forest types as per Champion & Seth (1968) classificaton as verified by latest study by FSI

It has been found that broadly, about

17% Tropical Evergreen / semi evergreen category,

20% Tropical Moist Deciduous,

42 %Tropical Dry Deciduous,

2.3% Tropical Thorn,

5.7% Subtropical Pine and about

8% Himalayan Temperate category.

OVERVIEW OF INDIA’s FOREST RESOURCE

National Forest Inventory (NFI) is also done to by laying sample plots on the ground but NFI is least publicized and discussed by media and others including academia

About 4000 sample plots are laid systematically in selected about 30 districts of the country each year

Assessment of Tree outside forests (TOF) resource is part of this activity

Growing stock of wood in forests and TOF, biomass, carbon stock , bamboo resource are results of NFI

OVERVIEW OF INDIA’s FOREST RESOURCE

Annual Timber production ( source: Forest Sector Report of India, ICFRE -2012)

Forests 2.5 million m3

TOF 44.5 million m3

Imported 6.0 million m3

Carbon stocks in India’s forests

Component

Carbon Stock in forest land

in 1994

Carbon stock in

forest land in 2004

Net change in

Carbon stock

Above Ground Biomass 1784 2101 317

Below Ground Biomass 563 663 100

Dead wood 19 25 6

Litter 104 121 17

Soil 3601 3753 152

Total 6071 6663 592

(Million tonnes)

Trend of India’s Forest resource The total forest cover of the country is either stable or

marginally increased

There is no reliable data to comment on the degradation status of the forests at the national level.

Per capita forest declined to 0.06 ha due to increased population. Comparing with USA, India’s geographic area is almost 1/3rd of the USA whereas the population is 4 times, thus population density is 12 times.

Tree outside forests have become the major source of wood production in the country

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