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23rd Jul 08
Managed by Chatham House
Financed by DFID
Use this map to access information about different countries. Click the green buttons then READ MORE to see documents, presentations, links etc that are relevant to individual countries.
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Africa
The Central African region contains over eighty percent of the total rain forests on the African continent. The forests are located in a region of central Africa often referred to as the Congo Basin. This Basin spans over numerous countries that include Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. In addition, Madagascar has moist forest in a stretch along the eastern side and dry forests in the west.
Central Africa houses one of the most abundant sources of biodiversity in the world. One quarter of the world's rainforests and over thirty million species inhabit the Central African rain forests. Due to deforestation, urban expansion, and agricultural demands, flora and fauna are under increased pressure for survival.
These forests contain the second largest block of closed canopy habitat in the world, second only to Brazil and represent unique eco-systems and an essential support for the livelihoods of African people, especially the poor.
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Central America
The countries of Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) comprise an area rich with a diverse range of plant and animal life. It is estimated that approximately 7 percent of the world's animal species live in Central America, a narrow strip of forests and beaches that accounts for only 0.5 percent of earth's land area. The population of Central America is approximately 37 million, with a yearly growth rate of about 3 percent. Although Central America has been plagued for decades by civil wars and natural disasters, the region witnessed a period of economic growth throughout the 1990s. Expanding economies coupled with growing populations have put significant new stresses on the environment in Central America. Observers from around the world have concluded that the environmental quality of the region is in rapid decline.
Despite its recent economic growth, Central America remains one of the poorest regions on earth; a fact which has led to massive exploitation of the area's natural resource base. Large areas of forest have been cut down and burned for firewood or used in the production of paper, while significant portions of land have been cleared for agricultural use. Approximately half of all Central Americans live in rural areas, and it is estimated that the average family living below the poverty line burns approximately 12 tons of firewood a year. Also, as a result of oil exploration activities in certain parts of Guatemala, such as the northern Peten rainforest region, the building of roads has led to the clearing of land and forested areas. These activities have contributed to large-scale erosion and soil loss, leaving many areas vulnerable to flash floods and mudslides as the natural landscape's ability to retain water is jeopardized.
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East Asia
As a whole the Asia-Pacific region contains 17 percent of the world's remaining forests, but has lost 88 percent of its original frontier forest area. The East Asian region alone contains six per cent of the world's forests and has global significance in terms of biodiversity.
These forests have been decimated by unconstrained logging, much of it illegal, over the last two decades. Current patterns of forest exploitation in the region threaten ecological security, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of millions of people who live in the remaining forest areas. In the Philippines 16 million hectares of natural forest have been reduced to just 700,000 hectares, with illegal logging causing much of the destruction.
Illegal logging in Asia appears to be a regional problem, which is unlikely be adequately addressed at the national level. Much of the illicit timber flows across porous borders, where neighbouring states often legitimise the timber by issuing paperwork to mask its true origin. Smuggling has also been documented across the region - from Indonesia to Malaysia, Singapore and China, from Cambodia to Thailand and Vietnam, and from Myanmar (Burma) to China.
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Eastern Europe and North Asia
Ranging from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, Russia has 22 percent of the world's forest area. By comparison, the next largest forest countries are: Brazil with 16 percent, Canada 7 percent and the U.S. with 6 percent of the world's forest cover. The most often referred figure for Russia's total forested area is 763.5 million hectares (equal to 1.87 billion acres). There is, however, some doubt about the origin and accuracy of this figure.
Russia occupies one eighth of the global land area and most of non-tropical Eurasia. Its territory presents landscapes of 8 natural zones, passing from arctic deserts and tundra all the way through the taiga zones to broad-leaved forests and steppe areas.
Clearly Russia's vast forests are a natural resource of global importance, both ecologically and economically. They also serve Russia and the rest of the world as a source of timber and as a critical stabiliser of the global climate. According to recent estimates by the World Resource Institute, about 26 percent of the world's last frontier forests are in Russia.
In spite of a long history of economic development, the lands of Northern Eurasia are relatively little disturbed, especially in Siberia and the Far East. Industrial and agricultural expansion into these regions has been difficult due to permafrost, the cold climate and land which is difficult to cultivate. The worst decline in biological and landscape diversity has occurred in Northern Caucasia, in the Volga Region, in Central European Russia and in Southern Siberia. The other regions have experienced mostly local human impacts, and almost 90 percent of tundra, up to 70-75 percent of taiga forests and 20-30 percent of Asian steppes have remained close to their natural state.
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Europe
As a result of sustainable forest management, Europe's forests are on the increase. When mature trees are felled, at least the equivalent surfaces are replanted and the biodiversity of the area preserved. Concerted efforts are also made to ensure that they can be used for recreational purposes. The EU has a total forest area of 130 million hectares, accounting for about 36 percent of its total land area. In comparison with the other regions of the world, the EU's forest resources are modest and represent only 4 percent of the world's forest resources.
There is a wide variety of forest types defined by their bio-climatic and soil conditions. Their ecological characteristics can be divided into numerous vegetation zones, ranging from the sub-Mediterranean zone to the Arctic belt, and from coastal plains to the Alpine zone. Forestland in the EU is 65 percent privately owned. As there are about 12 million private forest owners in the EU, privately owned forests tend to be highly fragmented into small plots, with most holdings smaller than five hectares. Ownership also varies widely within the Community. In Greece and Ireland, the State owns about two thirds of forestland, while in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, France and Germany, local communities play an important role as forest owners.
Europe also plays a significant role in the global timber trade as an end consumer of timber products.
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North America
North America's forests are abundant and growing. Between them, Canada and the United States contain 15 percent (10 percent in Canada and 5 percent in the U.S.) of the Earth's forest cover. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) State of the World's Forests 2001 reports that North American forest cover expanded nearly 10 million acres (4 million hectares) over the last decade.
Canada and the USA are also significant importers of timber and products which originated in tropical countries, many of which face problems with forest governance.
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Oceania
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South America
The Amazon is a rainforest in South America. It encompasses 1.2 billion acres (7 million km), with parts located within nine nations: Brazil (with 60 percent of the rainforest), Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. This forest represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and lies in a basin drained largely by the Amazon River.
The region is home to 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2000 birds and mammals. The diversity of plant species is the highest on earth with some experts estimating that one square kilometre may contain over 75,000 types of trees and 150,000 species of higher plants. One square kilometre of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,000 tons of living plants. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. One in five of all the birds in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon. To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region with many more remaining to be discovered or catalogued
There has been concern among environmentalists for many years, regarding the deforestation of the region, stemming mainly from the fact that more than one fifth of the Amazon Rainforest has already been destroyed and much more is threatened. Deforestation in the 1980s was considered catastrophic, yet in 1996, the Amazon was reported to have shown a 34 percent increase in deforestation since 1992. Recent US government reports suggest that the Amazon is vanishing at a rate of 52,000 square kilometres (20,000 miles) a year, over three times the rate for which the last official figures were reported, in 1994.
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