Global Forest Resource Assessment 2000: main report

Main paper presenting methods and findings from the latest FAO assessment of global forest resources. The report analyses base data from over 200 countries to produce country, sub-regional, regional and global summaries.Some global findings for each parameter examined are oulined here: Forest area - 3.9 billion hectares, or approximately 0.6 ha per capita. About 95 percent of the forest cover was in natural forest and 5 percent in forest plantations Change in forest area deforestation 14.6 million ha / year, 4.2% loss of natural forest over 10 years. net reforestation, afforestation and natural expansion 5.2 million ha / year, or 1.8%.net change -9.4 million ha / year. 2.4% The majority of forest loss was in the tropics with a net change of -12.3 million ha in the tropics compared to +2.9 in the rest of the world Wood volume and above-ground woody biomass standing volume -386 billion cubic metres of wood above-ground woody biomass - 422 billion tonnes Forest plantations estimated 187 million hectares of plantations worldwide new forest plantation areas are being established at the reported rate of 4.5 million hectares per year Trees outside the forest - scarcity of information made it impossible to draw conclusions on the TOF resource Biological diversity - no new global data but new maps and detailed descriptions of forest ecological zones Areas under forest management - figure are based on country reporting without consistent levels of monitoring or standards. At least 123 million hectares of tropical forests 89% of forest in industrialised countries Area of forests in protected areas - 12.4 percent of the world&#146;s forests were estimated to be in protected areas (defined according to IUCN categories). Number and extent of forest fires - In those countries where long-term data are available, the evidence indicates an increase in wildfires in the 1990-2000 period compared with most of the previous decades in the second half of the twentieth century, although available records and qualitative assessments show that the 1980-1990 period may have been equally severe. The climate phenomenon known as El Ni&ntilde;o was implicated as a major contributing factor. Wood supply and removals - estimated that 51 percent of world forests are within 10 km of major transportation infrastructure and potentially accessible for wood supply. 73% within 40km. Highest in subtropical zones, lowest in boreal forests. Non-wood forest products - no global data available but some good regional and coutry analyses particularly for Asia.The reports detailed analysis groups findings under a number of headings: Global perspectives Forest resources by region Processes and methodologies Conclusions and recommendations Global tables Global maps.The paper also conducts an analysis of the process and methodology employed to gather data and found that greater cross-sectoral interaction in the project was needed in order to fully address negative impacts on forests. Future studys should also find ways of integrating traditional local knowledge and challenge controversial issues such as illegal logging.There are some significant differences in the way data was collected for FRA2000 when compared to previos versions. This makes comparative analysis of data from FRA2000 and FRA1990 difficult particularly for forest area and area change. A seperate paper from FRA discusses these issues and makes an analysis of how data can be normalised to allow meaningful comparison. The working paper, <a href ="http://www.fao.org:80/forestry/fo/fra/docs/WP59_eng.pdf">Comparison of forest area and forest area change estimates derived from FRA 1990 and FRA 2000</a> is also available from the FAO web site.The web version of the report provides access to sections and charts as individual PDFs or the opportunity to download the whole report (7.2MB). You can also subscribe to a list for further updates and post comments and questions.