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Commonwealth
Forests | | |
 DEFORESTATION - AND FOREST DEGRADATION
Deforestation refers to the loss of forest area from one period to another. It mostly occurs due
to the conversion of forests to agricultural land, especially in the tropics. If the total national
forest area is (erroneously) thought to be indicative of the contribution of a country’s forests to
its and the world’s environmental, social, cultural and economic wellbeing, then the loss of
forest is thought to indicate the opposite. Globally the area of forest lost each year appears to
be reducing slightly, from 0.22% yearly in the decade 1990 to 2000 to 0.18% yearly in the five
years from 2000 to 2005. Some Commonwealth countries showed an increase in net forest
area, notably India (362,000 ha from 1990-2000 and 29,000 ha from 2000-2005), as well as New
Zealand (51,000 and 17,000 ha in the two periods), UK (18,000 and 10,000 ha), Swaziland
(5,000 in each of the two periods) and Gambia (2,000 ha in each of the two periods). But
overall there has been a loss of forest in Commonwealth countries in recent years. The annual
area of forest lost has grown, from 0.27% yearly in 1990-2000 to 0.31% yearly in 2000-2005, a
rate of loss nearly twice as fast as the rest of the world. Commonwealth African countries
appear to be losing the most forest every year, although the rate has slightly decreased in
recent years.
Commonwealth countries with particularly high rates of forest loss yearly between 2000 and
2005 include Nigeria (-3.3%), Uganda (-2.2%) and Ghana (-2.0%). In Asia, Pakistan has lost
in that period 2.1% yearly, and Sri Lanka 1.5% yearly. Details are in Annex
2.3. Forest
losses have, however, been noted recently in the press of many Commonwealth countries;
there have been recent adverse press reports of forest excisions, encroachments, settlements
or “land grabs” in Bangladesh and Kenya, while forest degradation from illegal logging has
been reported in Ghana.
Annex 2.4 shows the rate of loss of primary forest, i.e. forest of native species, in which there
are no clearly visible indications of human activity and ecological processes are not
significantly disturbed. Countries with no primary forest, or with no records, were omitted. The
greatest absolute loss of primary forest has occurred in Papua New Guinea, where over 274
thousand ha were deforested yearly between 1990 and 2000, and a further 250 thousand ha
yearly between 2000 and 2005. Nigeria lost 82 thousand ha yearly, and Malawi over 39
thousand ha yearly, in both periods. Other countries with significant losses of primary forest
included Sri Lanka (6,000 ha yearly in both periods) and Kenya (over 2,000 ha yearly). Losses
of primary forest appear to be continuing, but the available evidence suggests that the rate of
loss has slowed. Deforestation has important implications for climate change. Forests play an
important role in the climate system since they are a major reservoir of carbon, containing
some 80% of all the carbon stored in land vegetation, and about 40% of the carbon in soils. It
is often assumed that global warming is being mainly caused by the burning of oil and gas.
But in fact the cause of between 25 and 30 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the
atmosphere each year – 1.6 billion tonnes – is deforestation (workshop of the UNFCC with
FAO in August 2006, Rome, report on http://unfccc.int
) But the figures on deforestation do not
reflect degradation of existing forest, through successive harvesting for example, which may
reduce species diversity, the range of stem sizes, and forest functions affecting protective
capacity, biological diversity or carbon storage. Nor does deforestation reflect the conversion
of natural forest to planted forest, since the definition refers to “the loss of forest area from one
period to another”.
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