Wednesday, 2 July 2008
CarbonPositive.net
New methods of estimating rates of worldwide tropical deforestation suggest a small number of hotspots are responsible for a large of proportion of total clearing and are at odds with official data of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Research published in the July issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Matthew C. Hansen and others suggests wide differentials between the major tropical forest regions. Between 2000 and 2005, around 60 per cent of deforestation occurred in Latin America, a third in south-east Asia and just 5 per cent in Africa, the study estimates.
Within the regional figures, hotspots show up when the figures are broken down on a country-by-country basis and within country. Indonesia and Malaysia – at the centre of global concern over clearing for palm oil plantations – ranked relatively low compared to Brazil, said to be responsible for 48 per cent of all deforestation worldwide.
Researchers used various sources of satellite images to measure deforestation in sample areas around the world to estimate changes in forest cover. They say this is better methodology than the FAO monitoring, which relies on reporting by land and forestry authorities country by country. Another study earlier this year found discrepancies in FAO figures and concluded that it had been overestimating net deforestation over recent decades.
Deforestation is said to be contributing 18-20 per cent of total global greenhouse emissions.
The Hansen study estimates that 55 per cent of clearing occurs in just 6 per cent of tropical forest area. In Latin America, Northern Guatemala, eastern Bolivia and eastern Paraguay were identified as hotspots. The Brazilian southern Amazon states of Pará and Mato Grosso also showed up, in keeping with previous assessments.
In Asia, Riau province in Sumatra saw the highest clearing rate in Indonesia with Cambodia along the Thai border was also pinpointed. Hotspots were found in every state of Malaysia. West Papua, however, saw low levels of clearing.
Africa did not show hotspots, said to be generally subject to widespread but selective logging. By contrast, the FAO's 2005 Forest Resource Assessment report put Africa alongside South America as regions with the highest rates of deforestation.
The reason for the very different regional clearing rates appears to depend on the application of large-scale industrial practices in land clearing, the researchers say, increasingly being used in rapidly-industrialising Asia, but not nearly as accessible in Africa.
The overall estimate for deforestation from 2000 to 2005 was 27.2 million hectares or 105,000 square miles, a reduction in 2.36 per cent of the world tropical rainforest cover.
This week, the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak said more land would continue to be cleared for palm oil despite a national government directive to stop forest reserves being converted to palm plantations. Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said forest area already earmarked for conversion to agriculture many decades ago would be allowed to be cleared.
Mongabay.com 30/6/08, New Straits Times 29/6/08
Research published in the July issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Matthew C. Hansen and others suggests wide differentials between the major tropical forest regions. Between 2000 and 2005, around 60 per cent of deforestation occurred in Latin America, a third in south-east Asia and just 5 per cent in Africa, the study estimates.
Within the regional figures, hotspots show up when the figures are broken down on a country-by-country basis and within country. Indonesia and Malaysia – at the centre of global concern over clearing for palm oil plantations – ranked relatively low compared to Brazil, said to be responsible for 48 per cent of all deforestation worldwide.
Researchers used various sources of satellite images to measure deforestation in sample areas around the world to estimate changes in forest cover. They say this is better methodology than the FAO monitoring, which relies on reporting by land and forestry authorities country by country. Another study earlier this year found discrepancies in FAO figures and concluded that it had been overestimating net deforestation over recent decades.
Deforestation is said to be contributing 18-20 per cent of total global greenhouse emissions.
The Hansen study estimates that 55 per cent of clearing occurs in just 6 per cent of tropical forest area. In Latin America, Northern Guatemala, eastern Bolivia and eastern Paraguay were identified as hotspots. The Brazilian southern Amazon states of Pará and Mato Grosso also showed up, in keeping with previous assessments.
In Asia, Riau province in Sumatra saw the highest clearing rate in Indonesia with Cambodia along the Thai border was also pinpointed. Hotspots were found in every state of Malaysia. West Papua, however, saw low levels of clearing.
Africa did not show hotspots, said to be generally subject to widespread but selective logging. By contrast, the FAO's 2005 Forest Resource Assessment report put Africa alongside South America as regions with the highest rates of deforestation.
The reason for the very different regional clearing rates appears to depend on the application of large-scale industrial practices in land clearing, the researchers say, increasingly being used in rapidly-industrialising Asia, but not nearly as accessible in Africa.
The overall estimate for deforestation from 2000 to 2005 was 27.2 million hectares or 105,000 square miles, a reduction in 2.36 per cent of the world tropical rainforest cover.
This week, the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak said more land would continue to be cleared for palm oil despite a national government directive to stop forest reserves being converted to palm plantations. Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said forest area already earmarked for conversion to agriculture many decades ago would be allowed to be cleared.
Mongabay.com 30/6/08, New Straits Times 29/6/08
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