1. Deforestation We Wish to Learn: What is “deforestation”?
How have old growth forests been affected by humans?
What are the consequences of loss of forest habitats and ecosystems?
What management strategies are in place to preserve and restore forests?

2. Area of Forest Ecosystems
World total: ~ 34 million km2

3. Definitions
Deforestation: The conversion of forest to another land use or the long-term reduction of the tree canopy cover below a 10 percent threshold. Deforestation implies the long-term or permanent loss of forest cover and its transformation into another land use.
Primary forest: is a forest that has never been logged and has developed following natural disturbances and under natural processes, regardless of its age.
Secondary forests: are forests regenerating largely through natural processes after significant human or natural disturbance, and which differ from primary forests in forest composition and/or canopy structure.
Disturbed forests: Any forest type that has in its interior significant areas of disturbance by people, including clearing, felling for wood extraction, anthropogenic fires, road construction, etc.
Frontier forests: large, ecologically intact, and relatively undisturbed forests that support the natural range of species and forest functions (WRI definition).
Forest plantation is one established by planting or/and seeding in the process of afforestation or reforestation. It consists of introduced species or, in some cases, indigenous species.

4. Frontier Forests of the World
The major findings of this report show:
* Almost half of Earth’s original forest cover is gone, much of it destroyed within the past three decades.
* Today, just one-fifth of the world’s original forest cover remains in large tracts of relatively undisturbed forest -- or frontier forest.
* Three countries -- Russia, Canada, and Brazil -- house almost 70 percent of the world’s remaining frontier forest.
* 40 percent of forest on Earth today qualifies as frontier forest.
* 39 percent of Earth’s remaining frontier forest is threatened by logging, agricultural clearing, and other human activity.
* Half of today’s frontier forest lies in boreal regions within Canada, Russia, and Alaska -- inhospitable northern zones between temperate forest and tundra.
* Outside of boreal regions, about 75 percent of the world’s frontier forest is threatened.
* Only 3 percent of the world’s frontier forest falls entirely within the temperate zone (regions characterized by moderate climate, including much of the U.S. and Europe). Today temperate forests are the most endangered frontier forests of all.
Frontier forests
8,000 years ago
Frontier forests
Today
Current non-frontier
forests

5. Deforestation - A Global Pattern

6. Virgin Forests 1600 Virgin Forests 1993
Old-growth forests in the United States and Canada: Since 1600, 90% of the virgin forests that once covered much of the lower 48 states have been cleared away. Most of the remaining old-growth forests in the lower 48 states and Alaska are on public lands. In the Pacific Northwest about 80% of this forestland is slated for logging.
Source: Wilderness Society, U.S. Forest Service, and Atlas Historique du Canada

7. Forest Area Change in Illinois
Million Acres
1820: 13.8
1924: 3.02
1948: 4.00
1962: 3.87
1985: 4.26
1998: 4.33
Note regrowth since 1920s, of second-growth forest (Iverson 1991)

8. Deforestation Rates
Note similarity of present deforestation rates in the tropics and past deforestation rates in Illinois. (Iverson et al. 1991)

9. Worldwide Distribution of Tropical Forests
Tropical evergreen forest once covered ~ 16 million km2; today they cover about half their original extent.

11. Brazil contains about 3.5 million km2 of tropical forest, ~30% of the world's total.
Almost all of Brazil's standing tropical forests are in the Amazon Basin,
~50% of Amazonia comprises upland areas: tropical rain forest.
Perhaps another 0.5 million km2 consist of transitional forests.
In addition, there are large areas of savanna in the southern reaches of Amazonia.
Amazonia

12. Images of Amazonia Sloth in tree Macaw with Brazil nut
See the GC1 lecture (

13. Satellite image analysis reveals increasing rates of deforestation in Amazonia, and transformation of forest land into agriculture and pasture

14. Brazil in the News Rondonia from Space, 1992
WASHINGTON POST, Feb 23, 1998
Statistics released this year show that in 1995 destruction of the Amazonian rain forest reached
an all-time high. Just five years before, in 1990, some 11,000 square kilometers of forest were
cleared in the Amazon. By 1995 that figure had almost tripled, to more than 29,000 square
kilometers -- equivalent to 6 1/2 million football fields.
REUTERS, Feb 3, 1998:
Brasilia,   Brazil — Brazil has created seven new national forests in the Amazon to foster sustainable logging and slow the destruction of rain forests. A decree signed by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso turns a total of 6.67 million acres of public land into areas which the Brazilian government may lease to loggers, the government's Environmental Institute (IBAMA) said in a statement. “With the decree … the government hopes to discourage the purchase of private land in the Amazon and at the same time encourage state governments to create their own networks of public forests”

15. Forest Functions
Source of wood products, including fuelwood (83% of all wood), building and non-wood products
Influence climate conditions, affecting rainfall patterns and temperature
Store nutrients and influence soil fertility
Store carbon and act as potential CO2 “sink”
Support natural ecological systems and helps to protect life diversity
Provide recreational benefits

16. Wood and Non-Wood Products
roundwood - wood in its natural state. May be used for building or processed into lumber, pulp, panels, paper & plywood
food: nuts and fruits
bark, dyes, fibers, gums, incense, latexes, oils, resins, shellac, tanning compounds & waxes
Brazil nut harvesters (Castañeros) harvest the mature fruits after they fall to the forest floor

17. Forest Ecosystem Services
protect watersheds and ensure perennial supplies of fresh water
reduce sedimentation by mitigating erosion due to winds and surface run off
prevent floods
improve air quality
enrich soil through plant litter and nitrogen fixation
protect biodiversity
Photo of muddy flood waters

19. Trees provide shade and their root systems hold soil

20. Endangered Species
In June 1990, the Northern Spotted Owl was listed as an threatened species
Lives in old-growth coniferous forests at the top of the food chain (needs to range widely)
Logging in the Pacific Northwest takes place on public as well as private lands
U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies are caught between their traditional role, which includes permitting forest harvest, and growing desire to protect species and wildlands
The Numbat - a marsupial lives off insects that inhabit decaying trees in old-growth forests

21. Causes of Deforestation
Growing economies and consumption
Population growth and demand for new land
Bad economic policies
Short-sighted political decisions
Corruption and illegal trade
Poverty and landlessness
Root causes of deforestation include:
* Growing economies with growing demand for paper and wood products;
* Population growth, poverty, and landlessness that drive the poor to clear pristine forest;
* Mistaken economic policies that ignore or undervalue frontier forest preservation;
* Short-sighted political decision-making that appeases special interest groups or influential families or that defuses acute political emergencies by offering land, access, roads, etc.
* Corruption among government officials or illegal trade in drugs produced from plants grown in isolated growing areas.
* Poverty and landlessness which push people into frontiers in search of agricultural land and other economic opportunities.

22. Tropical hardwoods are highly valuable - ebony, teak, rosewood, etc
Tropical hardwoods are highly valuable - ebony, teak, rosewood, etc. Their sale earns dollars for exporting countries, and enriches timber barons.

23. Economics of Timber Harvest
Due to the slow renewal of a forest, and the high value of timber, it may be more profitable to sell the timber and invest the money, than to harvest the forest sustainably
Due to political corruption, economic inequity and the powerless position of the poor, wealthy elites are able to pursue their short-term gain
Long-range policies and environmental concerns often lack support among the wealthy and the poor
When regulatory policies exist, they may rarely be enforced

24. Landlessness and Population Growth
Many tropical countries with extensive forest are experiencing substantial population growth and urban migration.
Historical discrepancies between wealthy landowners and poor peasants are reflected in political power structure, and so no land is available to give poor people work in the countryside
Opening of forests to the landless poor is a social safety valve, reducing urban migration and conflicts between rich and poor.

25. Roads and Their Consequences
Network of roads built into forests is extensive. One square km can have 20 km of roads
In the U.S. forest system, there are 600,000 km of roads, built to facilitate timber harvest
Road networks have serious consequences
As forests are opened up, they become drier and more susceptible to fires. Fires in tropical forests were very rare. In 1997 severe fires raged in Brazil and Indonesia (remember the smoke problems in Indonesia)
Bushmeat harvest enabled by road networks is depleting tropical forests of their wildlife

26. Forest fragmentation by roads in Central Africa
Forest fragmentation by roads in Central Africa. This study shows that 42% of forest area in the six countries is within 10 km of a road and more than 90% is within 50 km of a road.
WRI Earthtrends

27. Forest Management and Recovery
Forest management may have many goals - to maximize harvest, to provide recreational opportunities, or to maximize multiple uses of the forest
Forest restoration may seek to restore the system to a near-natural or completely natural state, or to restore many aspects of the structure and function of an undisturbed forest

28. Some U.S. Forest Management Issues
2000 was the biggest wildfire year since the 1950s and advent of Smokey the bear.
Today we have 50 years of wildfire suppression, coupled with the spread of humans into wildland interfaces.
Trends in wildlife area burned in wildfire in U.S.
Iverson, L.R Biological trends in the United States: an annotated on-line review.

29. Restore Oak Communities
Fire and Thinning to
Restore Oak Communities
Fire suppression plays a role in the impending “maple takeover” and “oak bottleneck” in the East. Oaks and hickory dominate the overstory, but maples will eventually take over, unless management actions can help regenerate oaks.

30. Prescribed Fires
Prescribed burns help to kill maple saplings and may benefit oak regeneration. However, a more open canopy also is needed.

31. Thinning
Thinning plus fire may help to recover oak forests

32. Timescales for Recovery
100+ yrs to
resemble uncut forest
uncut forest
cut or burn
farmed 2-3 yrs)
2 yrs
pioneers
emerge
15 yrs
primaries
emerge
Time scales are such that it
takes 100’s of years
for a forest to regenerate
If small plots of forests are cut, burned, farmed for a few years and then allowed to lie fallow, forest structure and biodiversity may persist
If biomass is bulldozed away the forest may never regenerate

33. Restoration Ecology - natural recovery vs a “helping hand”
Scientists and others are experimenting with tropical forest restoration in many locations.
Based on scientific understanding of forest dynamics, including light gaps, seed dispersal, and recruitment dynamics
Even in very degraded areas, fragments of intact systems can be found in margins of altered areas
Timescale of recovery is uncertain - no observational record of a full recovery to “old growth” conditions
Tree nursery and planting seedlings,

34. Forest Stewardship in Developing Countries
Manage for long-term benefits
Create economic opportunities for all parties
Develop a balanced land-use plan based on sound science
Have clear role for government and enforced regulations
Involve all local stakeholders
Conserve special areas

35. Tropical Forest “Hot Spots”
These 17 areas, believed to be unusually rich storehouses of biodiversity, are being deforested rapidly.
Source: Norman Myers and Conservation International

36. Summary
Forest ecosystems provide valuable human products and ecosystem services
Deforestation has already removed about half of the world’s forests, and in your lifetime threatens to eliminate most of the remaining tropical forests. Many temperate forests are re-growing, however
Forests are managed for multiple uses, to restore as much of possible of natural ecosystem function, and in some cases to attempt to restore “old-growth” or pre-disturbance conditions