ESTIMATING AREAS OF DEGRADED TROPICAL LANDS REQUIRING REPLENISHMENT OF FOREST COVER

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Abstract
There are an estimated 2,077 million ha of degraded lands in the tropics, of which 758 million ha have a theoretical potential for forest replenishment if the substantial area of low productivity rangelands is disregarded. The total includes 418 million ha in dry or montane areas requiring afforestation or reforestation; 137 million ha of tropical rain forests in need of protected regeneration or silvicultural manipulation; and 203 million ha of forest fallows in the humid tropics which could be reforested. Based upon previous forecasts of future demand for fuelwood and industrial wood it is estimated that reforestation of a third of all degraded lands in montane regions (26.8 million ha) and afforestation of about a fifth of the degraded area of croplands in dry regions (61.5 million ha) would prevent projected fuelwood deficits in those regions by the year 2000. In the humid tropics, an additional 26.6 million ha of medium- rotation high-grade hardwood plantations could, with the current plantation area, produce enough wood to supply the level of world demand for tropical hardwoods forecast for the year 2000. These plantations would require the conversion of two thirds of the estimated area of alang-alang infested grasslands in South East Asia, or 13% of all forest fallow in the humid tropics but would not start to mature until the second quarter of the next century. The total area afforested and reforested would be 114.9 million ha or 15% of all degraded areas.

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