State and Trends


2.2.4 State and trends


Forests The forests of Asia and the Pacific account for about one- fifth of the world’s total and cover around 25 per cent of the land area of the region, or 722 million hectares (Wilkie 2009). Figure 2.2.3 shows tree cover in the region (DiMiceli et al. 2011); forests show varying density, with high densities in Northeast and Southeast Asia. River basins such as the Mekong and Ganges show considerably higher tree-cover density than other parts of the region.


In general, the total forest area has shown a continuous increase in Asia since 1990 (FAO 2015c). Sub-regional trends differ. However it has increased in Northeast and South Asia but declined in Southeast Asia (FAO 2015a). The Northeast Asia sub-region has seen a continuing increase in forest area and carbon stocks. While deforestation continues, albeit at a slower rate, deforestation rates in Southeast Asia are higher than in other sub-regions. South and Southeast Asia showed the highest partial canopy-cover loss, a proxy for forest degradation. Despite the high deforestation rates and declining forest cover, South Asia reports a higher proportion of forest area covered by forest management plans than other areas, which may help to halt the decline in future (FAO 2015b).


Asia has 134 million hectares of privately owned forests and their area is increasing in the region, with Southeast Asia having highest proportion of privately-owned forests (FAO 2015a). Although much of the forest in the region is still publicly owned, the change towards private ownership, especially by individuals, could have serious implications in terms of how forests are sustained and managed in the future. Although significant areas of forests are under indigenous management which helps conserve forests for generations (WHRC and EDF 2015), it is alarming that indigenous people own the least amount of forest among all categories of ownership (FAO 2006), and the area is on the decline (FAO 2015a), with negative consequences on forest conservation.


Poor tenure and rights to forest land, especially that of indigenous people, are considered to be one of the important factors contributing to deforestation and forest degradation and restoring tenure and rights to indigenous people is seen as a social, economic and political imperative (Sunderlin et al. 2008). Not all ecosystems are equally affected by the increasing population and environmental hazards, the Sundarbans mangrove forests of Bangladesh and India are known to continue to thrive with no major impacts in the past decade (UNEP-Stockholm Convention 2015).


Agricultural land


About 40 per cent of the world’s agricultural land is in the Asia and the Pacific region, of which almost 31 per cent is arable, 4 per cent is used for permanent crops, and 65 per cent consists of permanent meadows and pastures. Regional differences exist: Southeast Asia has less farm land than other sub-regions, 20 per cent of the total land area of the sub-region, while Northeast Asia has the largest, more than 60 per cent, although a substantial reduction was observed a decade ago (FAO 2015c).


The region has experienced a significant expansion of agricultural land, from 47 per cent of the region’s total land area in 1970 to 53 per cent in 2007 (FAO 2009), an average growth of 0.8 per cent a year compared to 0.1 per cent globally. The change in agricultural land areas has been driven by rapid economic development, technological advances, infrastructure programmes and population growth and mobility in the region (Schandl et al. 2009). In the past decade, however, expansion of agricultural land has been negligible (World Bank 2015), and actually decreased in some developed countries – Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea –and in some developing ones – Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. In contrast, it increased in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand (Friedl et al. 2010) (Figure 2.2.4). Practices such as shifting cultivation continue to impact forest resources in Asia. Land tenure requires urgent attention in the region as little significant improvement has been achieved despite ongoing


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