Title: Ecuador Suffers the Highest Deforestation Rate in South America
Abstract: "Deforestation" in this chapter is used according to the FAO (2001) definition: it is the conversion of forest to another land use or the long-term reduction of the tree canopy cover below the minimum 10% threshold. This implies that areas where trees have been removed as a result of harvesting or logging are not considered as "deforestation". Even if the structure or function of a forest is heavily disturbed by harvesting operations, the stand remains a forest as long as it has a tree canopy cover of more than 10% or is expected to regenerate naturally or artificially in the long run. So "deforestation" in the sense of the FAO definition does not incorporate the degradation of forests included in some other definitions, e.g. Myers (1994). Correspondingly the replacement of old-growth forests by plantations or their temporary use by shifting cultivators is not considered as destruction or deforestation. Only a complete change of land use or the destruction of forest cover which prevents its recovery to more than 10% crown cover enters the FAO statistics as "deforestation" or "forest loss".
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 106
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot