Principle – Ecological integrity is maintained

Original Indicator - Forest Land Conversion. Rate and total area of forest converted to non-forest land cover, e.g., urbanization

Revised indicator: Rate and total area of forest land converted to non-forest land cover, classed by major forest type.

Box B: Definition:

CCFM definition - Area of forest permanently converted to non-forest land use, e.g., urbanization and Semi-permanent or temporary loss or gain of forest ecosystems, e.g., grasslands and agriculture.

This indicator measures both the rate of conversion of forest land to other land covers (by type) and the total area of forest land relative to past conditions.

Box D: Applicability to Different Landowners. Explain any differences:

The area of the forest and rate of conversion to non-forest is important to all landowners.

Box E: Overlap:

CCFM - 4.2.1 Area of forest permanently converted to non-forest land use, e.g. urbanization.

4.2.2 Semi-permanent or temporary loss or gain of forest ecosystems, e.g. grasslands and agriculture.

1. Percentage and extent, in area, of forest types relative to the historical condition and total forest area.

5.1.2 Distribution of, and changes in, the landbase available for timber production

Box F: Geo-Political Scale:

Notes: The amount of forested land and the rate of conversion is important at all scales. Globally forest loss in one region may impact climate in a distant region. It is probably less important at the site level where the actual conversion occurs. The conversion of one site is irrelevant to sustainability. It is the cumulative changes that are important.

Notes: This indicator includes both the rate of forest conversion and the actual amount of land converted. The amount of land converted is more diagnostic of the situation, while the rate of conversions is more predictive.

Notes: Forest conversion changes the composition of the landscape.

Box I: Underlying Concepts:

The issue of land conversion is considered important to the sustainability of forests, because if forest lands are being permanently lost, the decline in forested area will ultimately affect the amount of wood that can be extracted for societal uses. It will also affect the ability of the forest to provide environmental, social, cultural and recreational benefits to society.

When forests are converted to other uses, there is usually a net loss of carbon from the trees, vegetation and soils. The carbon moves to the atmosphere, increasing concentrations of CO2 . When other lands (e.g., agricultural lands) are converted to forests, however, the lands incur a net carbon gain, which helps reduce atmospheric concentrations. (Forest lands contain more carbon than agricultural lands.) Knowing whether our forested area is contributing to or reducing atmospheric carbon is an important element of Canada’s reporting commitments under the Framework Convention on Climate Change (Canadian Council of Forest Ministers, 1977).

Box J: Relevance to Sustainable/Unsustainable Management:

In North America, forest lands are being permanently converted to purposes that serve the needs of a growing population—to residential areas, agricultural lands, roadways, pipeline corridors, hydroelectric right-of-ways, reservoirs, mining areas, airports, etc. There is concern that the magnitude of the conversion is affecting the global carbon and hydrological cycles, which are linked to climate change and global warming. The decline in forested area will ultimately affect the amount of wood that can be extracted for societal uses. It will also affect the ability of the forest to provide environmental, social, cultural and recreational benefits to society. Finally a decline forest area is a decline in habitat for forest dependant species. If the loss of forest is too great, species will also disappear (Canadian Council of Forest Ministers, 1977).

Box K: Measurement Methods :

Measuring forest conversion is relatively straightforward. It can be done from forest inventories taken from ground surveys, aerial photographs or, increasingly, satellite detection systems. In some areas old survey documents or early forest cover maps can provide information on past forest extent. Rates of change in forest cover require sequential data sets. Sequential air photographs are generally available for North America from about the 1940’s and satellite data from the early 1970’s. One potential limitation of remote detection methods is that they are often of coarse resolution and thus limited to the presence or absence of forest. They may be unable to assess forest type or condition.

Box L: Data Required:

See measurement methods

Box M: Data Used for the North American Test :

Data availability for this indicator was assessed examining the national and international literature as well as spatial information from the Boise National Forest.

Box N: Example Results:

In North America, since European settlement began in the 17th century, the largest conversion of forest lands to other uses has been to agricultural lands. In the United States, forests were estimated to cover 46 % of the land base (423 million hectares). This area declined to 33% of the landbase by 1907 and to 31% by 1985. The rate of conversion of forests to non-forest in Canada is 88,000-103,000 hectares per year, with about 15,000 hectares of agricultural land converted back to forest yearly.

Not all conversion of forest lands to agricultural lands is permanent. Some lands cannot sustain economically viable agricultural use, and so are abandoned and intentionally or naturally changed back to forests at a rate of approximately 15,000 hectares per year. In total, each year, some 88,000–103,000 hectares of forests are converted permanently to non-forest land covers. However, with Canada’s current forested area of 417.6 million hectares, the significance of this conversion is diminished by the size of our forests—the annual rate of approximately 15,000 hectares per year.

There are no standards are norms available for the amount of land removed from forestry or even the rate of removal. It is well known that deforestation of tropical forests are taking place at an extremely rapid pace. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the estimated annual rate of tropical deforestation during the 1981-1985 period was 113,846 square kilometers or 0.6% of the 1981 total forested area. Such an annual rate of -0.6% is very high. In contrast FAO reported a change in forest area for temperate/boreal North America of +0.17%. Non-tropical forests of Latin America had a deforestation rate of -0.29%.

For the Boise Study, an estimate of forests land conversion was obtained by using geographic information system to calculate all lands converted to roads, urban lands, campgrounds, and industrial lands. The area of roads was calculated by using the geographic information system to buffer road vector file to a width of 20 meters (~60 feet). The preliminary analysis yielded the following results:

Area lost to roads 172.8 Km² (1.9%)

Area lost to urbanization 89.7 Km² (0.9%)

Total area lost to productive forest 262.5 Km² (2.0 %)

Note that this is a very coarse measure of land conversion. It measures land converted from the original forest. It would be relatively easy in the study to analyze the loss of 2% of the study area by forest type, but this was done because of time constraints. Similarly, examining the rate of change of the loss of forest lands would also be possible for this study area. The rate of conversion in the Boise study area is very low.

Box O: Assessing the Practicality:

With the availability of sets of historical photographs as well as remotely sensed satellite data, it is relatively easy to assess changes in forest cover. The key measure is a rate of change, so more than one data point is required.

Box P: Assessing the Information Value:

The information value of this indicator is assumed to be high. Changes in forest cover have been used as a variable by many organizations. It is a common element in the criteria and indicators for the Helsinki Process and the Montreal Process, among others.

This indicator may be misleading as there is tendency for the public to believe that, if forests are simply present, then the situation is sustainable. The indicator only deals with forest loss to other land covers and not conversion of stand types or conversion to plantations.

Box Q: Overall assessment:

Accepted with revision.

This is a simple indicator that is relatively easy to obtain with remote sensing technologies. It is important to get the rate of change as well as the forest. If there is an interest in using this measure to assess changes in carbon storage, other factors must be measured. Of key interest here is the type of land cover after forest conversion.

This measure is a coarse indicator, but will serve as an early warning indicator in some areas of North America. As such is should be part of a core, or base set, of indicators. However, in some areas and for some tenure holders, it will be of little utility as the extent of forest is protected by legislation (i.e. United States National Forests) and not likely to change. What is more important in these areas is changes in forest type and condition.

Another weakness of this indicator, as worded, is that it provides no information on forest change by forest type. Not all forests are under the same development or harvest pressure. The most productive forest lands are those first converted to agriculture. In North America the vast majority of highly productive soils, that were originally forested, are now in agriculture.

Box R: Did you rewrite or revise to a new indicator. If so what?

Yes. Rate and total area of forest land converted to non-forest land cover, classed by major forest type.

Box S: References:

• Canadian Council of Forest Ministers. 1977. Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management in Canada. Technical Report. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forestry Service, Ottawa, Canada. Fo75-3/6-1997E.
• (FAO) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 1977. State of the Worlds Forests. FAO, Rome, Italy. 200 pp.
• United States Forest Service. 1997. First Approximation Report for Sustainable Forest Management. Report of the United States on the Criteria and Indicators for the Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests. USDA Forest Service, Washington, D.C.