FO:APFC/2000/INF.5

THE GLOBAL FOREST RESOURCES 2000

1. FAO regularly reports on the world's forest resources through the Forest Resources Assessment Programme (FRA), which is now actively facilitating the execution of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000). FRA 2000 will include country-level information based on existing forest inventory data, regional investigations of land-cover change processes, and a number of global studies focusing on the interaction between people and forests. The overall objective is to provide information and a source of knowledge on the world's forest resources. FRA 2000 will facilitate discussion and stimulate decision-making on how to conserve and manage forests on the global scale. Information related to FRA 2000 will be distributed on the World Wide Web, in addition to printed reports, which will become available in the course of the year 2000.

2. FAO's global forest resources assessments rely on existing information from countries to generate national-level statistics and a forest change survey, based on remote sensing. Since 1998, FAO has been conducting data collection activities in Asia. As of March 2000, most Asian countries have now supplied the necessary information to FAO (see table below). The remaining countries are now working with FAO to finalize their submissions. Final data sets are anticipated to be in FAO by June 2000 for these, as well as countries in the other regions. While all the data are not yet in for FRA 2000 from the countries, the situation in regards to information in general in Asia is relatively good. Data currency for Asian countries is above average on a worldwide level. In addition, for many countries time series on forest cover are now available, providing information on forest area changes during the eighties and nineties. Preliminary findings, based on the country time series, indicate that the area of natural forest is still decreasing in most countries, while there is a continuing significant establishment of forest plantations in the region. A workshop is being staged in Bhutan for countries in the Indian Sub-Continent to review the collected data and advise FAO on their use in generating the standardized estimates required for FRA 2000 global reporting.

Table 1. FRA 2000 Data Collection Status in Asia

Sub-Region	Country	Currency of Data for FRA 2000
South Asia	Bangladesh	1984 - 1996
South Asia	Bhutan	1978 - 1989
South Asia	India	1990 - 1992 - 1994
South Asia	Maldives	pending
South Asia	Nepal	1978 - 1994
South Asia	Pakistan	1990
South Asia	Sri Lanka	1983 - 1992
Continental SE Asia	Cambodia	1986 - 1992 - 1996
Continental SE Asia	Laos	1982 - 1989, 1992 - 1996 (submission pending)
Continental SE Asia	Myanmar	1989 - 1996
Continental SE Asia	Thailand	Time series over 37 years (1961 - 1998): in nineties: 89 - 91 - 93 - 95 - 98
Continental SE Asia	Viet Nam	1990 - 1997, 1993 - 1997
Ins. SE Asia	Indonesia	1982 - 1989 with a new submission pending
Ins. SE Asia	Malaysia	1982 - 1992
Ins. SE Asia	Philippines	Yearly update since 1988 through 1997
Ins. SE Asia	Singapore	1990
Ins. SE Asia	Brunei Darus	1984 - 1998
East Asia	China	1986 - 1991, new submission expected
East Asia	Korea, DPR	1993
East Asia	Korea, Rep.	1993
East Asia	Mongolia	pending
Tropical Oceania	Papua New Guinea	1975 - 1996

3. For the Pacific, data collection is still underway. Information received thus far indicates that either much of the forest inventory data has not been received by FAO or is not current. Therefore a workshop is being considered for select Pacific countries for mid-2000 to improve the information base. The proposed workshop will be targeted at a subset of Pacific Countries, to be determined. At the same time, vegetation descriptions have now been compiled for all the Pacific Island Countries through an agreement with Bishop's Museum in Hawaii and the expertise of Dr. Mueller-Dombios, who generously agreed for FAO to use his latest book "Tropical Vegetation of the Pacific Islands" as the major source of information for the briefs. These vegetation descriptions will be sent to countries for validation by August 2000, who should comment on and return the briefs to FAO for publication.

Table 2. FRA 2000 Data Collection Status in Pacific

Country	Last inventory In FRA Records	FRA Questionnaire Received
American Samoa	Pre-1981	14/10/99
Christmas Island	Pre-1981
Cook Islands (the)	Pre-1981
Fiji	1991/92
French Polynesia	Pre-1981
Guam	Pre-1981
Kiribati	Pre-1981
Marshall Islands (the)	Pre-1981
Micronesia (Federated States of)	1986
Nauru	Pre-1981	28/01/00
New Caledonia	Pre-1981
Niue	1994
N. Marianas Isl.	1989
Palau	1988
Pitcairn Island	Recent
Samoa	Recent
Solomon Islands	1995	12/01/00
Tonga	Pre-1981
Tokelau	Pre-1981	26/01/00
Tuvalu	Pre-1981
Vanuatu	Recent
Wallis and Futuna Islands	Pre-1981

4. As information becomes available and is validated by countries, it will be presented on the Forest Department Website throughout 2000. Included in the information set will be country profiles, illlustrated with maps, describing the woody vegetation of the countries, national statistics cleared and submitted by each country,the country's protected area system, as well as the harmonized FRA global statistics. A number of special studies will also be presented, included studies on Trees Outside of Forests, Biomass, Non-Wood Forest Products, and Fires, among others.

Table 3. Forest Cover for Asia and Pacific for 1995 (based on older data)

All Countries
Country	Land Area 1999	Total Forest 1995			Natural Forest 1995
	1 000 ha	1 000 ha	% of land area	Per. cap. ha	1 000 ha
Bangladesh	13017	1010	7.8	n.s.
Bhutan	4700	2756	58.6	1.7	2748
India	297319	65005	21.9	0.1	50385
Maldives	30	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Nepal	14300	4822	35.2	0.2	4766
Pakistan	77088	1748	2.3	n.s.	1580
Sri Lanka	6463	1796	27.8	0.1	1657
South Asia	412917	77137	18.7	0.0	61836
Cambodia	17652	9830	55.7	1.0	9823
Laos	23080	12435	53.9	2.5	12431
Myanmar	65755	27151	41.3	0.6	26875
Thailand	51089	11630	22.8	0.2	11101
Viet Nam	32549	9117	28.0	0.1	7647
Continental South Asia	190125	70163	36.9	0.4	67877
Brunei Darussalam	527	434	82.4	1.5	434
Indonesia	181157	109791	60.6	0.6	103666
Malaysia	32855	15471	47.1	0.8	15371
Philippines	29817	6766	22.7	0.1	6563
Singapore	61	4	6.6	n.s.	4
Insular Southeast Asia	244417	132466	54.2	0.5	126038
China	932641	133323	14.3	0.1	99523
China - Hong Kong SAR	99	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
DPR of Korea	12041	6170	51.2	0.3	4700
Japan	37652	25146	66.8	0.2	n.ap.
Macau	2	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Mongolia	156650	9406	6.0	3.9	9406
Republic of Korea	9873	7626	77.2	0.2	6226
East Asia	1148958	181671	15.8	0.1	n.ap.
American Samoa	20	0	0.0	0.0	0
Cook Islands	23	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Fiji	1827	835	45.7	1.1	757
French Polynesia	366	0	0.0	0.0	0
Guam	55	0	0.0	0.0	0
Kiribati	73	0	0.0	0.0	0
New Caledonia	1828	698	38.2	3.9	689
Niue Island	26	6	23.1	3.0	6
Pacific Is. (Trust Terr.)	178	0	0.0	0.0	0
Papua New Guinea	45286	36939	81.6	8.6	36909
Samoa	283	136	48.1	0.8	127
Solomon Islands	2799	2389	85.4	6.3	2371
Tonga	72	0	0.0	0.0	0
Vanuatu	1219	900	73.8	5.3	893
Total Tropical Oceania	54055	41903	77.5	6.3	41752
Notes: numbers may not tally due to rounding
n.s. - not significant; indicating a very small value
n.a. - not available
n.ap. - not applicable