STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
25
an increasingly fragmented and vulnerable ecosystem. Protecting
the remaining large contiguous areas of rainforest is a global
responsibility.
The three main tropical rainforest regions that remain – the Amazon
(~5 mill km
2
), the Congo Basin (~2 mill km
2
), and Asia including
Papua New Guinea (~1.4 mill km
2
) – will have to be at the core of
the world’s efforts to halt deforestation. Also mainland Southeast
Asia, Madagascar and parts of West Africa and Central America
have smaller, but important, areas left of the rainforests that once
covered much of the land in these regions.
Primary forest – the original “jungle”
Primary forest, sometimes also referred to as ‘intact forest’, can be
defined as a forest of native species where the ecological processes
have not been significantly disturbed. Primary tropical moist forests,
or rainforests, are the terrestrial systems with the highest diversity
of species. According to FAO,
4
some 36% of the world’s total forest
area is primary forest (13–14 mill km
2
); 57% is naturally regenerated
forest and 7% is plantations.
There is substantial uncertainty with regard to the accuracy of
figures on primary forest, as the forest monitoring and reporting in
many countries is poor.
FAO
5
reports that 400,000 km
2
of primary forest was lost or affected
by human activity to the extent that it changed into secondary,
or ‘naturally regenerated’, forest between 2000 and 2010. This
data does not include a DRC, a major rainforest country.
6
In its
assessment of the main rainforest basins,
7
FAO estimates 62% of
the forests in these areas to be ‘primary forest’. A review of primary
forest in different climatic zones, estimates the ‘equatorial’ zone –
the rainforest region – to have just over 6 million km
2
primary forest.
8
Not surprisingly, Brazil is on the top of the list of tropical countries,
with 2.5 million km
2
primary forest – only Canada and Russia have
Carbon emissions from gross forest loss, 2000-2005
Billion tonnes of Carbon
0 to 1
1 to 2
2 to 3
3 to 4
4 to 5
5 to 10
10 to 50
50 to 100
100 to 200
More than 200
Source: Harris, N., L., et al., Baseline Map of Carbon
Emissions from Deforestation in Tropical Regions, 2012
Note: Study area includes the humid tropics, dry tropics and temperate forest biomes
of 75 countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.
Average annual emissions per decade and last year available
Billion tonnes of Carbon per year
Global Carbon emissions are increasing,
emissions from forests are not
2
0
4
6
8
10
1960-69 1970-79 1980-89 1990-99 2000-09 2003-12 2012
Fossil fuels combustion
and cement emissions
Land use change and forestry
Uncertainty margin
Source: Le Quéré et al., Global carbon budget, 2013
