TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: The definition of deforestation
Deforestation Defined
Deforestation refers to the loss of forest cover; land that is permanently converted from forest to agricultural land, golf courses, cattle pasture, or other land use. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N.) defines tropical deforestation as "change of forest with depletion of tree crown cover to less than 10%."Depletion of forest to tree crown cover greater than 10% (say from 100% to 12%) is considered forest degradation. Logging most often falls under the category of forest degradation and thus is not included in deforestation statistics. Therefore forest degradation rates are considerably higher than deforestation rates. Accordingly, many tropical forest countries have considerable forest coverage, but millions of hectares are highly degraded by logging and no longer sustain their original structure or levels of biodiversity. For example, a 2005 study published in the journal Science found that conventional analysis of satellite data at the time detected only about half the damage caused by timber harvesting by missing degradation that occurs beneath the rainforest’s protective canopy.
Certain activities and land use change that result in forest loss are not necessarily considered deforestation under the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and FAO definition of deforestation. For example, forest loss associated with natural disturbances such as hurricanes or strong wind; wildfires; or land management practices like rotational forestry, smallholder agroforestry systems, or shifting agriculture.
One of the most widely-used metrics for monitoring forests is the University of Maryland’s (UMD) annual tree cover loss dataset. Tree cover loss does not distinguish between deforestation or temporary loss, nor does it determine the cause of tree cover loss. Thus tree cover loss is an all-encompassing measure that can be used for a wide range of purposes. For example, if a map of primary forest cover is used as a mask on the dataset, tree cover loss provides insight on primary forest loss. But tree cover loss in and of itself does not represent deforestation.
Deforestation in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.
More about deforestation:
Continued: Economic Restructuring