disappearing forests

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warning over disappearing forests

Satellites show world's main woodlands concentrated in 15 countries

Tim Radford

Tuesday August 21, 2001

The Guardian [UK]

More than 80% of the world's remaining forest is located in just 15
countries, according to an international study published today.
For the first time, according to United Nations Environment Programme
chiefs, satellites have provided a clear picture of the forest cover around
the globe. All previous studies have been based on statistics provided by
individual nations. These have been notoriously inconsistent - UN officials
said they know of 100 different definitions of the word "forest".

But the new picture confirms environmentalists' worst fears. Huge tracts of
forest have been cleared since 1960 and the guess is that the loss of
wilderness in the developing world will continue. UN chiefs said that
efforts to save forests should be concentrated in a few countries.

Klaus Toepfer, director of Unep, said in London yesterday: "Short of a
miraculous transformation in the attitude of people and governments, the
Earth's remaining closed canopy forests and their associated biodiversity
are destined to disappear in the coming decades."

The study provides a map of "closed forests" - defined as woodland in which
the tree canopy covers more than 40% of the land - but makes no distinction
between virgin forest, old growth, plantations and naturally regenerated
woodlands.

The biggest tracts are in Siberia and Canada where population densities are
relatively low. But some of the planet's richest populations of wildlife
are concentrated in tropical forests.

"The importance of healthy forests cannot be underestimated. Forests are
vital for the wellbeing of the planet. They provide a variety of
socio-economic and ecological goods and services.

"These include watershed management, with forests regulating the quantity
and quality of rainwater discharging into rivers. They also help counter
soil erosion and the spread of deserts," said Dr Toepfer.

The forests also play a vital role in reducing the impact of climate change
by soaking up carbon from the air. Forests also harbour some of the world's
most endangered wildlife and provide food and medicines.

Altogether 80.6% of the world's remaining closed forests are in Russia,
Canada, Brazil, the US, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, China,
Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, India, Australia and
Papua New Guinea.

The research, which cost $20m (£14m) although newly released, is based on
Nasa satellite readings taken between 1990 and 1995. In effect, Unep has
provided a snapshot of the planet six years ago. New studies, based on data
from a European space agency satellite, will soon provide a picture of the
world in 2000.

Armed with more precise information, conservationists and government and
international agencies could then concentrate on the most threatened
regions, educating local people in the value of forests as a sustainable
resource, and encouraging other means of income.

"I don't want to give a nightmare prognosis. We have to be as realistic as
possible," Dr Toepfer said. "We can succeed by giving people an
alternative. They are not interested in the destruction of the forests, but
they have to earn their living."

? Less than 10% of forests have any formal protected status though some of
these house a huge range of rare and indigenous species

? Siberian and Bengal tigers survive in the forests of Russia and India.
Giant and red pandas have precarious ranges in the high forests of China.
The liontailed macaque is unique to the western Ghats of India, and the
orang-utan is found only in Indonesia

? In Africa, the forests shelter the mountain and lowland gorilla, the
forest elephant, the pigmy hippopotamus and the chimpanzee, all of which
are endangered

? The spectacled bear, the only species of bear in South America, is unique
to the Andes. The woolly spider monkey, found in the Atlantic forests of
Brazil, is one of the most threatened of all primates.

? The puma, which roams the mountains and forests of north, south and
central America, is under threat.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine