12 Forest Resource: Distribution, Livelihood & Scarcity Concerns

Dr Soma Sarkar

Learning Objectives: After studying this unit you should be able to:

• Explain the basic concept of forest resource scarcity.
• Understand the issues and concerns towards forest resource scarcity at global and regional perspective, Explore major consequences related to forest resources scarcity

KEYWORDS

Forest scarcity, climatic variability, deforestation, urbanization

1. Introduction

Forests play a essential function in global ecosystems and provide a multitude of services such as “shelter, habitats, fuel, food, fodder, fibre, timber, medicines, security and employment; regulating freshwater supplies; storing carbon and cycling nutrients; and helping to stabilize the global climate”. Owing to this since long “forests have been under pressure due to increasing demands for shelter, agricultural land, meat production, and fuel and timber extraction, but in recent decades this pressure has increased due to competing demands for agricultural expansion and biofuel production, rapid urbanization and infrastructure development, and increased global demand for forest products” (GEO5).

According to Global Forest Assessment Report 2015, “in 1990 the world had 4,128 million ha of forest (31.6 percent of global land area); by 2015 this area has decreased to 3,999 million ha (30.6 percent)”. Forest gains and losses occur continuously globally, and are very complicated to monitor even with high resolution satellite imagery. It is so because natural forest and planted forest area vary dramatically across national conditions and vegetation types. The biggest forest area loss is recorded in the tropics, particularly in (South and South East Asia, Central and South America, and all three sub-regions of Africa).

The top ten forest countries account for some 67 percent of global forest area (Table1). About 1/5th part of geographical region in India is forested; status is grim when compared to other regions. An apparent part of the worldwide forest estate is as of now assigned for various utilize permitting both generation and preservation without prioritising or organizing either. All around 1.049 Mha or one fourth of the timberland domain were assigned as multi-use forests in 2015, an expansion of 81.8 Mha ha (8.5%) since 1990. Multi-use forests enrolled “the greatest gain in South America (87.5 Mha), Oceania (52.5 Mha), and East Asia (48.3 Mha), and enlisted the largest decreases in South and Southeast Asia (56.5 Mha), Europe (31.9 Mha), and North America (19.6 Mha)”. Expanding interest for woodland and rural items debilitates to undermine endeavors to capture biodiversity decay and keep up the uprightness of the forests.

Table1 Top ten countries by forest Area in 2015 (Source: FAO, 2015)

     2. Causes and concerns

In developing regions the decline of natural forest was significant between 1990 and 2015 (Figure 1). “Total losses in the tropics have been greatest in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by those in Africa and in Asia and the Pacific” (Figure 2). Growth of population, industrialization, continued dependence on subsistence agriculture and related agricultural expansion, forest product trade and an absence of alternatives to wood as fuel are the main driving forces in dropping forests in these regions. Rates of deforestation scenario are gruesome in Asia and the Pacific, and in the highlands of West Asia. Increased climatic variability, declining productivity and greater susceptibility to flooding have likewise been credited to high degree of deforestation on the African landmass.” In West Asia, the opening up of forests has made greater susceptibility to erosion and land degradation. Woodland status as of now somewhat stable in Europe and North America, as it has been for the past century.” Be that as it may, forests in Europe experience the ill effects of acidification, and the boreal (northern) forests in Siberia are vigorously misused too. Although forest cover in India has increased in figures at national level during 2015 assessment, around 2,510 sq. kms of very dense and mid-dense forests have been wiped out since 2013. States of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Meghalaya, and Telangana have suffered huge loss of forest cover. Around 2,254 sq. km of mid-dense forest cover has been converted into non-forest lands since 2013.

Figure1. Annual net forest gain/loss (ha) by country (1990–2015) (Source: FAO, 2015)

Figure2. Annual forest area change by climatic domain (000 ha per year) (Source: FAO, 2015)

The major drivers of forest resource stress are:

a) Demographic Change: Between 1948 and 2015 human populations have nearly tripled. It is predicted that the rise will continue. This will no doubt put greater pressure on remaining forest resources to provide goods and services. For instance, “a test of the 62 tropical countries that had a mean rate of natural forest loss above zero in 2000–10, and by employing logarithmic transformations, resulted in a correlation coefficient of r = 0.615 between Log10 (deforestation rate2000–10), and Log10 (population growth rate2000–10). However, the relationship between the rate of change of natural forest area, and the rate of population growth is now more complex than it was in the 1980s and 1990s, owing to the increasing dominance of controlling forces of forest expansion over drivers of deforestation, the differential influences of urban and rural populations, and the effect of time lags. For example, for the five tropical countries with mean population growth rates of 2–4 million persons y-1 in 2000–10 (UN, 2013), the rate of deforestation varied from 71 K ha y-1 (Pakistan) to 3030 K ha y-1 (Brazil), and natural forest area actually rose at a rate of 43 K ha y-1 in India, which had the highest population growth rate in the tropics (16.4 million persons y-1)” (R.J. Keenan et al., 2015).

b) Agricultural land expansion: With continue rise in population, it is likely that requirement for alteration of more forest land to agriculture will continue. Unless agricultural productivity increases significantly on existing farm lands, the situation will be prominent in the tropics. At present 37.4 per cent of global geographical area is used for agricultural production. As for India where majority of the population in rural parts have agriculture as the primary occupation, about 42 per cent of the total land surface is under agriculture. It remains the foremost for rural economic growth. “Between 2000 and 2050, global cereal demand is projected to increase by 70–75 per cent while meat consumption is expected to double. Meeting these needs, while avoiding a large expansion of agricultural land and protecting biodiversity, will be a major challenge”.

c) Infrastructure and industrial growth: Communication, transport, energy, healthcare, housing, and knowledge infrastructure are the major priorities for most of the developing nations as their main focus is on sustaining the economic growth rates. Since, land is the primary necessity; forest clearance has always been the easy way out. “Special economic zones and special economic regions are also expected to have strong influence on the socio-economic profile of people in their catchments, leading to changes in consumption patterns and way of living. The agro and rural industry segment depends upon the farm and non-farm production of raw material, a large proportion of which comes from forest products” (FRA, 2015).

d) Urbanization: Urbanization put forth great stress on ecosystems and natural resources. High urbanization rates leading to rise of consumption rates increases the stress on finite forest resources. Latin America and the Caribbean is the most urbanized parts in the developing world. “Africa is urbanizing increasingly, although most of the population remains rural; Asia and Oceania and Latin America and the Caribbean are already largely urbanized and migration streams are increasingly international; and the United States and Europe have high internal migration associated with labour mobility” (FAO).

e) Demand for wood: Since 1990 as the demand for wood has increased, the amount of woodland designated to generate it has increased too. “Wood demand has gone from 2.75 billion m3 per year in 1990 to 3.0 billion m3 per year in 2011. For the period 1990–2015, the area designated for wood production and multiple- use increased by over 128 million ha. About two-thirds of the total forest areas designated for multiple-use are found in the high-income countries and only one tenth in the low-income countries” (FAO).

f) Climate change: “Climate change is increasing in importance and will have profound impacts, particularly in combination with other threats.” Alterations in precipitation and evaporation are likely to have foremost impacts on hydrological regimes, which will have adverse impact on forest health. “The consequences of climate change on the monsoon pattern and concomitant natural calamities (and their impact on crop production), receding glaciers, biodiversity, land degradation, desertification and soil erosion are being debated. The impact of climate change on forests is expected to be in line with changes in climatic conditions, to be manifested in species composition, profile, productivity, resilience and biodiversity. In the Arctic, tundra habitats are shrinking owing to tree-line advance. In India, with around 70 million tribal and 200 million non-tribal rural people depending on forest resources for their subsistence needs, climate change will have an impact on their livelihoods” (FAO).

g) Political and institutional environment: Meeting expectations of the stakeholders requires major adjustments in the responsibilities and structure of the forest administration. “The increasing decentralization of the democratic processes, community empowerment, participation in decision making, increasing inter-sectoral linkages, and economic aspects governing decision making require urgent development of skills for interpreting conservation and ecosystem services in economic terms and support to conservation on the basis of economic imperatives. A long-term strategy will be needed to deal with the challenges of improving governance, accountability and transparency in all spheres of central and local governments, the corporate sector and community levels” (FAO).

3. Consequences of Forest resource scarcity

a. Impact on stability of soil: The roots of trees are most essential for conservation of soil. It works as the protection against avalanches and landslides, for protecting coastal areas, and for stabilization of sand dunes. Loss of forest will lead to slope instability and makes the soil more vulnerable towards erosion by various agents of denudation.

b. Impact on global climate and pollution: Forests are also a vital purifier of air and water. They contain about half of the carbon in terrestrial vegetation (represent a considerable biomass / carbon stocks) in terms of their weight, their density and scale. “Forests contribute about 80% to the exchange of  carbon between vegetation, soil and atmosphere. Forest fires emit methane (10% of all methane linked to human activities comes from the burning of forest biomass) and nitrous oxide (N2O). These two gases are significant greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gas emissions are known to cause global warming of the planet that currently leads to extremely important climate changes” (FAO). “Scientists predict that the pace and scale of climate change could eventually exceed certain ecological limits or thresholds, leading to surprising and dangerous consequences such as the alteration of the world ocean’s chemical composition with increasing proportions of acidifying carbon, the global loss of coral reef ecosystems, or the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet” (Febry et al., 2008).

c. Impact on biodiversity loss: Primary forest accounts for 80% of land biodiversity. The primary stresses on biodiversity deals with habitat loss and degradation, alien invasive species, climate change, overexploitation, and pollution. “One driver can trigger a series of drivers and pressures that act in a domino fashion. For example, concerns about climate change impacts, including crop vulnerability and food insecurity, gave rise to policies that included mandates to increase biofuel production, such as legislation introduced in 2003 in the EU and in 2008 in the United States. Now, the growing demand for biofuels has taken a toll, with expanses of forests and natural lands in South East Asia being converted into mono-crop plantations.” (GEO5)

d. Impact on local climate: Deforestation causes excessive water runoff, leading to disastrous flooding as runoff is no longer guarded by the plant roots. Loss of forest can change the local precipitation regime of a region.

e. Impact on human health: The destruction of forest habitats for many species facilitates the transmission of infectious diseases to humans through contact with mosquitoes, monkeys, virus- and bacteria -carrying rodents that are potentially hazardous to humans.

4. Forest status in future

Forest area change differ considerably by region. As reported in the Global Forest Resources Assessment, 2015, Figure 3 shows “forest area by region as calculated from FRA data for the period 1990-2010 (solid line); projected using Global Forest Resources Model (GFRM) towards 2050 (dotted line); and extrapolated from the country specific aspiration for 2030 as reported in FRA 2015 (large dots). South America has the largest proportion of projected forest loss, followed by Africa. Forests in all other regions are projected to rise though. (Note that the divergence for Asia and Africa is strongly influenced by the low representation of reporting countries, and changing trends expected from certain countries within these regions).”

“South America and North America have the largest areas designated for protection and small projected loss in protected areas. Africa and Asia are projected to suffer the highest portion of protected areas loss (–0.7 percent and –0.9 percent)”. Sub-regions such as Northern Africa, East Asia and Western and Central Asia, have very small protected areas with little or no projected loss in areas, “Loss is expected in Brazil and Mali, and gain is expected in China, India and the Russian Federation. On the other hand, Bhutan, Belarus, the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran had their forest area increase over the past 15 years but expect forest loss in the next 15 years. While, countries such as Argentina, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria, Thailand and the United Republic of Tanzania, are expecting losses observed in the past to be reversed into forest area gains.” (FAO) The forests that are under the threat of conversions are clearly the production and multiple-use woodlands within the tropical region. The protected forest areas showed relatively low risk towards the threat of being converted to other land uses in the near future.

     Figure 3 Projected forest area by region (1990–2050) the solid line is from FRA data, the dotted line is projected from the GFRM and the large dots are country aspirations reported in FRA 2015.

4.1. Data challenges in Indian forest sector

“What’s missing fro m Indian forest data?” is indeed an important question towards our actions for forest management. According to the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and India’s Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), in India the serious problems is present not only in forest data quality, but in the uses to which these data are put.

Examples of problem areas include:

“There is no reliable assessment of the growing stock of trees at state level. Other deficits include a lack of data on different products from forests and a lack of increment and biomass data. It is difficult to make economic assessments and set policies without quality data and information on both the tangible and intangible benefits of forests.”

“Trees outside forests, mostly growing on private lands, are a major resource in India. Indeed, about 80 percent of all timber produced in India comes from non-forest areas under private ownership. However, there is no efficient inventory for trees outside forests.”

“Many deficits in the Indian forestry inventory are due to the ongoing degradation of Indian forest resources. Experts suggest that socioeconomic developments have brought forest management, in very large parts of the country, to a standstill. Large tracts are devastated within short periods of time but these degraded areas are not monitored nor are inventories updated”.

“Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are of growing importance, particularly for export. Yet there are many data gaps with respect to the production and consumption of NTFPs. Moreover, data are not collected in a uniform fashion.”

“There are scarcely any data and statistics on ecotourism, either in terms of demand or supply. To develop the forest-related ecotourism, an inventory of areas of potential interest to ecotourists is needed.”

According to the latest assessment, the forest cover of India is 67.7 million ha with a growing stock of 4.6 billion m3. “This forest cover corresponds to 20.6 percent of the geographical area but falls short of the national goal (National Forest Policy 1988) of achieving forest cover of 33 percent of the land area. But how relevant is this goal? Of the assessed forest cover of 67.7 million ha, only 5.6 million ha is very dense forest. Some 33.2 million ha is moderately dense forest and 28.9 million ha is open or degraded forest. Thus the forest-cover objective needs to be combined with quality objectives.”

5. SUMMARY

Forest resources play a vital role in maintaining ecological balance; and contribute to the multifaceted processes that are accountable for recycling water and carbon. However, forest resource scarcity may affect their future roles in sustaining taxonomic as well as genetic variation, ecosystem functions and environmental services.

Deforestation (forest fragmentation and degradation), population growth, urbanization, pollution and climate change are all having adverse effect on forest biodiversity. Forest loss will threaten the process and system of environment.

Understanding the spatial variation in forest change status and the root causes leading to such variations at regional and global level, there is an immediate need to work towards their sustainable development goals.

REFERENCES

1. FAO. 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. Rome (available at www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2010/en/).
2. FAO. 2012. FRA 2015. Terms and Definitions. Forest Resources Assessment Working Paper 180. Rome (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/017/ap862e/ap862e00.pdf).
3. FAO. 2014. State of the World’s Forests 2014. Rome (available at www.fao.org/forestry/sofo/en/).
4. FAO. 2015. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015. Rome.
5. Global environmental Outlook (GEO5) 2012. UNEP.