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Commonwealth
Forests | | |
 SUMMARY
The forests of Commonwealth countries account for more than one fifth of the world’s forest
area or nearly 810 M ha; the Commonwealth has the resource base to play a major role in the
international dialogue on forests and forest-related issues.
For example, three Commonwealth countries (Canada, Australia and India) are among the ten
most forested countries while five more have forests covering more than 20 million ha each.
Twenty eight per cent of the Commonwealth’s forests were classified as primary forest, mainly
in Canada but with significant areas in Africa and SE Asia and the Pacific. All Commonwealth
forests cover a wide range of natural forest types and represent a very high level of biological
diversity. Two forest types of particular importance not only in ecological terms but also in
terms of environmental, social and economic benefits are the boreal forests of Canada and the
mangrove forests of the coastline of many small island developing states and other low-lying
countries; both are under threat from the effects of global warming.
The importance of forests and woodland to rural people in Low Forest Cover Countries and in
montane zones is often not understood by policy-makers. Other wooded land (OWL) is also
an unappreciated resource; it covers 280 million ha in Commonwealth countries and while it is
a significant resource for many rural people, more studies are required to quantify it and the
benefits it provides, especially to the poorest.
But deforestation is continuing in Commonwealth forests, not only at a slightly faster rate than
the recent (2000-05) loss of forests in the world, but apparently at a faster rate than in the
period 1990-2000 – whereas the world’s deforestation has slightly slowed since then. Most of
this loss has occurred in certain African and South Asian countries. The loss of primary forest
continues too, above all in Papua New Guinea but to a lesser extent in certain African and
South Asian countries. The outlook is, however, not entirely pessimistic. A recent article
(Mather, 2007) draws attention to the recent net gain of forest in three Asian countries,
including India, or a “forest transition” from net deforestation to net reforestation. In the
cases
of India the article draws attention to changes made in national forest policy to promote Joint
Forest Management since 1990 (see Chapter 2) as being one of the significant means of
facilitating that transition. Forest transition may have occurred in many developed economies
in the 19th century, possibly related to increasing national wealth, and countries such as
the
UK and New Zealand still show net forest gains. Increasing income per head, however, does
not now satisfactorily explain the reasons for forest transition; India had a GDP/head of $2,670
in 2002, and Malaysia $9,120, but Malaysia’s rate of forest loss has increased, not decreased.
On the other hand, Chapter 2 shows that Malaysia scored better than India in many of the
attributes of sustainable forest management.
Countries world-wide are establishing plantations to offset the loss of natural forests, and
Commonwealth countries have a long history of growing trees in plantations. Currently
plantations in Commonwealth countries cover over 14 million ha, or 1.8% of the
Commonwealth forest estate compared with the global proportion of 3.5%. Several
Commonwealth countries rely heavily on planted forests for the provision of forest goods and
services and there is a move towards “outgrower” schemes by smallholders in many countries,
reflecting a global trend. Such schemes can contribute to the livelihoods or rural people, but
there implications for policy-makers, who should bear in mind the impact on wood supplies of
sudden changes in facilitating policies. Tree planting in towns and cities is attracting
increasing recognition and support.
Most forests in Commonwealth countries are publicly owned, but some countries have
communal ownership and several others predominantly private ownership. Some
Commonwealth countries have been pioneers in the privatisation of forests.
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