The Deforestation

Name: Raulan

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Academic Writing

The Deforestation

Forests have played a major role in human history throughout the world with being a source of raw material for buildings, transportation and communication, a source of food and the fuel for cooking it, and a source of land for farms and cities. Over time, the interaction between humans and forests has changed from the daily life relation into social and economic relation. Forest products are used to develop economic and social facilities, for instance, forests are being burned to open the new area for building the residences. Such things make the number of forest become deplete.  

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has monitored the world’s forests since 1946 at five to ten year intervals. These global assessments provide valuable information to policy-makers, to international negotiations, arrangements and organizations related to forests and to the general public. The Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 (FRA 2010) examines current status for more than 90 variables and all types of forests in 233 countries and areas for four points in times: 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010. FAO cooperates with countries and forest assessment specialists in implementation of FRA 2010. More than 900 contributors were involved, including 178 officially nominated national correspondents and their teams. There are seven elements of forest management are being examined: extent of forest resources, forest biological diversity, forest health and vitality, productive functions of forest resources, protective functions of forest resources, socio-economic functions of forests, legal, policy and institutional framework.

Based on the latest data, forests cover 31 % of total land area. The world’s total forest area is just estimated over 4 billion hectares. This corresponds to an average of 0.6 ha per capita, though this is unevenly distributed. It is based on data forest reported by 228 countries and territories. The five most forest-rich countries are the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China known for more than half of the total forest area. Among world regions, Europe (includes the Russian Federation) accounts one-quarter of total forest area, followed by South America and then North and Central America. South America is the region with the highest percentage of forest cover (almost half of the land area) while Asia is the region with the lowest percentage of forest cover (less than 20% of land area). Moreover, this number has been decreasing as the reduction of forest area by the time.

There are two different kinds of reduction of forest: deforestation and forest degradation. What are the causes of reduction of forest area generally? A reduction in forest area can happen through two processes: deforestation and natural disasters. Deforestation implies that forests are cleared by people to another use, such as agriculture or infrastructure. Natural disasters may also destroy forests when the area is incapable to replant. It is important to carefully distinguish between the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation. The underlying causes are the triggering mechanisms for these factors. The factors are either direct: the deforestation in developing tropical countries, the replacement of a forest area by a field of coffee trees is due to cash cropping which is the direct and visible factor, or indirect: the opening of a road (public or for forest logging) in a forest zone, which in addition being a direct factor that attracts farmers in search of land who will clear the forest for cultivation. According to FRA, overall, this reduction of forest has changed to 30.6 percent in 2015, or some 3.999 million hectares of 31.6 percent of the world's land areas, or some 4.128 million hectares of forest area.

In Indonesia, forests are sub-divided into three groups based on their function, namely (a) production forest, (b) conservation forest, and (c) protective forest. The forest estate accounts for 71% of the total land area of Indonesia; one-third is covered by primary forests, one-third by logged-over areas and one-third by vegetation other than forest. Seventy-five percent of 191 million hectares Indonesia's total land area is classified as forest land. This is particularly in Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Irian Jaya. Under Indonesian law a forest is described as an eco- system which has biodiversity dominated by trees. There is a relative small area of forest land outside the forest estate. Deforestation rates on these lands are 5 times higher on a relative basis than deforestation inside the forest estate. These lands account for 35 percent of the annual deforestation in Indonesia.

According to a report by FAO, the loss of forest land in Indonesia from 1982- 1990 showed that over the eight year period Java lost about 90.5 % of its forest cover, while for Sumatra are 59 %, for Nusa Tenggara 74.4 %, Kalimantan 38.8 %, Sulawesi 49.6 % resulting in the Indonesia average forest loss of 54.4 % excluding Maluku and Papua. According to the new study, 38 percent of all tree cover loss in Indonesia during the study period occurred in primary forests. Notably, 40% of this loss happened within zones that restrict forest clearing, such as national parks, protected forests, and even areas protected under Indonesia’s forest moratorium. Less surprisingly, 51% of the primary forest loss occurred in relatively flat, accessible areas, while higher areas remain relatively intact. Further, 43% of primary forest loss occurred in wetlands. Most of this change occurred in the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, with the former seeing more primary forest loss happening in wetlands, often by draining or burning carbon-rich peat and contributing significantly to climate change. According to Ekadinata (2010), annual deforestation in Indonesia is currently 1.2 million ha (MoF 2009) and is driven largely by the expansion of plantation crops and pulpwood production. The expansion of agriculture for food production contributes a smaller but significant proportion. If deforestation rates continue at their current pace, forests will disappear in the non-Forest Estate lands in around 20 years and in the production and conversion forests in around 100 years. Other estimates suggest that all forest land could be cleared within the next 50 years at current rates.

The production forests, with total area of 64.3 million hectares, most of these (73%) consist of mixed hill forests located up to 1,300 meters above sea level with the most important commercial species. As of March 1996 there were 483 units of concessionaires being operated covering 56.14 million hectares in natural production forest lands. The number of concessionaires and their area are decreasing compare to the 1990's figure when Indonesia had 575 concessionaires covering around 60 million hectares. It is reported that in the coming five years the number of concessionaires are going to be reduced further through mergers, with the number declining to only 50 concessionaires throughout the country.