See also: Ecology; Ecosystems; Forestry; Forests; Land management; Multiple-use approach; Sustainable de-velopment; Timber industry; Wood and timber.. Category: Organizations, agencies,
Trang 1Forest regulation is the process of determining the
ap-propriate size and age structure of the forest over a
large area to ensure the continued production of
re-source values in perpetuity Regulation also refers to
the process of organizing a forest to meet social and
economic goals and constraints One such
require-ment may be to produce a relatively even flow of forest
products over time; another may be to ensure a
con-tinued supply of high-quality water from a municipal
watershed An industrial forest manager may be
re-quired to produce a certain level of fiber to supply a
billion-dollar mill employing hundreds of people
The appropriate size and age distributions of trees to
best achieve this goal may be quite different from
those required to maximize the habitat for a
particu-lar animal species
Biological and Ecological Considerations
Physical, chemical, and climatic factors place limits
on both the types of plants and animals that can
in-habit an area and their productive potential Forest
managers must recognize and be able to develop
pos-sible management alternatives given the biological
and ecological characteristics of an area These define
the types and mix of products and values that may
be produced Managers must work within these limits
to determine the appropriate mix to best meet
man-agement goals For every resource, it is important to
determine appropriate production levels to ensure
sustainable production over the long term while
maintaining ecosystem structure and function This is
complicated by the fact that production is measured
in different units for different resources For water, it
may be the annual volume of water per year from a
wa-tershed that meets certain quality standards For
wild-life it may be the population levels an area can sustain
Integration
Forest management, therefore, deals with the
integra-tion of biological and ecological potential with
hu-man economic and social goals and objectives Some
forested areas are managed to produce a mix of
com-modities and services, while others are managed to
maximize the production of a single item Designated
wilderness areas, national parks, and national wildlife
refuges, for example, are all managed largely to
opti-mize the production of a relatively narrow set of
sources, but they still produce a mix of other
re-sources Forest managers are concerned with the
production of the whole range of resources from for-est ecosystems in such a way as to maintain ecosystem structure and function in perpetuity
David D Reed
Further Reading
Barnes, Burton V., et al Forest Ecology 4th ed New
York: Wiley, 1998
Bettinger, Peter, et al Forest Management and Planning.
Boston: Academic Press/Elsevier, 2009
Davis, Lawrence S., et al Forest Management: To Sustain Ecological, Economic, and Social Values 4th ed
Bos-ton: McGraw-Hill, 2001
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Na-tions Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005: Progress Towards Sustainable Forest Management Rome:
Au-thor, 2006
Gane, Michael Forest Strategy: Strategic Management and Sustainable Development for the Forest Sector
Dor-drecht, the Netherlands: Springer, 2007
Humphreys, David Logjam: Deforestation and the Crisis
of Global Governance Sterling, Va.: Earthscan, 2006 Hunter, Malcolm L., Jr Wildlife, Forests, and Forestry: Principles of Managing Forests for Biological Diversity.
Illustrated by Diane Bowman Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1990
Nyland, Ralph D Silviculture: Concepts and Applications.
2d ed Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002
Sauer, Leslie Jones, and Andropogon Associates The Once and Future Forest: A Guide to Forest Restoration Strategies Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998 Smith, David M., et al The Practice of Silviculture: Ap-plied Forest Ecology 9th ed New York: Wiley, 1997.
See also: Ecology; Ecosystems; Forestry; Forests; Land management; Multiple-use approach; Sustainable de-velopment; Timber industry; Wood and timber
Forest Service, U.S.
Category: Organizations, agencies, and programs Date: Established as Division of Forestry, 1897; renamed United States Forest Service, 1905
The United States Forest Service manages and con-serves U.S national forestlands and grasslands with
a mission of ensuring resource use by the public for rec-reation and by industry for logging and ranching The
Trang 2U.S Forest Service is a recognized international leader
in forest and ecosystem research and in natural
re-source protection and conservation and serves as a
model for similar agencies in developing nations.
Background
The U.S Forest Service, a division of the U.S
Depart-ment of Agriculture, is responsible for managing
ap-proximately 77 million hectares of national forest as
well as 1.6 million hectares of grassland located in
forty-four states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands
The agency’s history dates back to the early 1890’s,
when President Grover Cleveland proclaimed
seven-teen federal forest reserves, totaling 7,087,500
hect-ares In the nineteenth century, the timber industry
had become notorious for stripping an area of all its
marketable timber and then moving on, leaving
be-hind a barren, eroded landscape and deserted towns
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the forest
resources of the North American continent appeared
so inexhaustible that the forest products industry
gave little thought to conserving forests or practicing
what is now known as sustainable forestry By the
1880’s, however, the fact that forest reserves were
dis-appearing was clear Public concerns about excessive
harvesting contributed to fears that the nation’s
sup-ply of timber would be exhausted before the turn of
the century Conservation leagues formed, and
news-papers and magazines of the time published
numer-ous articles warning of a coming timber famine
One of President Cleveland’s final acts as president
in 1897 was to sign legislation providing funding for
the administration of the reserves and creating the
Di-vision of Forestry within the Department of the
Inte-rior Not all members of the public supported the
Di-vision of Forestry’s creation: Many business interests
responded to the initial creation of the federal forest
reserves by urging that President Cleveland be
im-peached The act stood, however, and in 1905,
respon-sibility for the federal forest reserves was transferred
from the Department of the Interior to the
Depart-ment of Agriculture At that time the agency’s name
changed from the Division of Forestry to the United
States Forest Service
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a
per-sonal friend, renowned forester and conservation
ad-vocate Gifford Pinchot, to serve as the agency’s first
director Pinchot had studied forestry in France,
where forests had been managed for hundreds of
years, and had also observed forestry practices in
other European countries The initial mission of the U.S Forest Service was to conserve forest resources for future generations and to protect the nation’s watersheds and riverways by preventing erosion That
is, the U.S Forest Service attempted to manage the forest reserves in a way that would allow for both sustained-yield harvesting and the prevention of soil run-off from hillsides into waterways One of the con-sequences of excessive timber harvesting was heavy silt deposits that choked formerly navigable rivers Rain falling on forested hillsides is slowed or absorbed
by vegetation; rain falling on barren hillsides tends to run off quickly, washing soil with it and contributing
to both erosion and flooding
Impact on Resource Use Under Pinchot, the U.S Forest Service practiced for-est management that allowed for harvfor-esting in a man-ner that attempted both to be ecologically sound and
to create a solid economic base for logging towns Sustained-yield harvesting would allow permanent communities to grow; families could flourish as lum-bering and related industries provided stable, year-round employment
In addition to managing forest reserves, the U.S Forest Service established regional research stations
to investigate issues such as silviculture, reforestation, fire suppression, and harvesting practices Although referred to as stations, the locations of research ef-forts were not actually centralized but instead took place in a variety of settings, including controlled lab-oratory environments and forests The U.S Forest Service also supported research performed by scien-tists at universities by funding grants and participat-ing in cooperative research agreements with acade-mia and industry Research conducted or supported
by the Forest Service has led to a better understanding
of forest ecology and to subsequent changes in man-agement by both government agencies and private in-dustry Research continued into the twenty-first cen-tury with activities such as the Forest Inventory and Analysis program, which conducts research on both public and private lands to assess the conditions of U.S forests and to detect future trends
The U.S Forest Service is also responsible for over-seeing twenty national grasslands National grasslands were established during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, when the Great Plains were devastated by the Dust Bowl, an ecological disaster caused by a combi-nation of drought and farming practices unsuited for
Trang 3a prairie ecosystem Farmers especially were affected
by the country’s economic woes, resulting in
thou-sands of farms being abandoned by farmers unable to
make mortgage payments or pay property taxes As
part of national relief efforts, the federal government
acquired millions of hectares of submarginal
farm-land that included both forest tracts and grassfarm-lands
Land more suited for forests than for farming was
in-corporated into national forests, such as the Oconee
National Forest in Georgia, and planted with trees
Prairie lands were restored to grasslands, such as
Buf-falo Gap National Grassland in South Dakota
Be-cause land for many forests was often acquired in
small, noncontiguous blocks as it became available
rather than through condemnation, many forests and
grasslands remain a patchwork of private and public
ownership with irregular boundaries Like national
forests, national grasslands are managed for multiple
use, including recreation, wildlife habitat, and
live-stock forage
Also in the 1930’s, the U.S Forest Service began to
provide more recreational opportunities in national
forests Civilian Conservation Corps members
devel-oped campgrounds, picnic areas, and hiking trails
The agency also instituted leasing programs that
al-lowed the public to lease lots within national forests
on which they could build recreational cabins for
sea-sonal use The U.S Forest Service provided
guide-lines that set size limits and specified the materials,
such as types of exterior siding, that could be used
Al-though these recreational opportunities were viewed
originally as secondary to the agency’s primary
mis-sion of ensuring a sustainable timber supply, over time
recreation assumed a more important role As the
threat of a timber famine faded, the public’s
under-standing of forest conservation and the appropriate
role of the U.S Forest Service changed
This change has been reflected in significant
pieces of twentieth century federal legislation, such as
the Wilderness Act (1964), the National
Environmen-tal Policy Act (1970), and the National Forest
Manage-ment Act (1976) Congress originally created the
For-est Service for conservation, that is, to promote the
wise use of forest resources Subsequent legislation
has resulted in the Forest Service becoming a diverse
agency with multiple missions relating to natural and
cultural resources in the United States The National
Forest Management Act in particular redefined the
agency’s mission by making multiple use an explicit
rather than an implicit requirement In the
twenty-first century, in addition to managing forests for a sus-tained yield available to the commercial forest prod-ucts industry, the Forest Service also is charged with protecting critical wildlife habitat, providing outdoor recreational opportunities for the general public, and protecting cultural resources, such as historic build-ings or archaeological sites, that fall within national forest boundaries
Thus the Forest Service is occasionally embroiled in controversy when one mission, such as providing rec-reational opportunities for the public, conflicts with other missions, such as protecting critical habitat for endangered species Nonetheless, as part of the De-partment of Agriculture, the Forest Service still over-sees national forests as reserves of timber which have been set aside for eventual sale to private industry For administrative purposes the U.S Forest Service
is divided into ten geographic regions The bound-aries for these regions have changed over time to re-flect changes in administration policies and goals Similarly, improvements in office automation, com-munications, and transportation technology have led
to management of individual forests becoming more centralized In Wisconsin, for example, the formerly separate Nicolet National Forest and Chequamegon National Forest are now managed as the Chequa-megon-Nicolet National Forest, while in Texas four national forests (the Angelina, Davy Crockett, Sabine, and Sam Houston) and two grasslands (Caddo and LBJ) are supervised from a central office
Nancy Farm Männikkö
Further Reading
Arnold, R Keith, et al View from the Top: Forest Service Re-search Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 1994 Clary, David A Timber and the Forest Service Lawrence:
University of Kansas Press, 1986
Lewis, James G The Forest Service and the Greatest Good:
A Centennial History Durham, N.C.: Forest History
Society, 2005
Steen, Harold K Origins of the National Forests: A Cen-tennial Symposium Durham, N.C.: Forest History
Society, 1992
Web Site U.S Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us See also: Conservation; Forestry; Forests; Multiple-use approach; Pinchot, Gifford; Timber industry
Trang 4Category: Environment, conservation, and
resource management
Billions of people, industrialists, and the economies
of many nations rely on forests, which cover
approxi-mately 30 percent of the world’s landmass The
prac-tice of forestry can ensure that there will be sustainable
forests to support all living things with timber and
wood products, energy resources, animal ranges,
wild-life habitats, recreational opportunities, water
re-sources, oxygen, and climate control.
Background
Forestry, considered both a science and an art, has its
origins in China, while the Western world formalized
the practice of forestry during the Middle Ages By the
sixteenth century, Germany and Japan were leaders
in developing systematic forest management, and
German foresters established many of the earliest
forestry schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries Royalty often promoted forest management
through mapping, harvesting, and reforestation An
example of such early forestry practices was Great
Britain’s Broad Arrow Policy of 1691, which required
reservation for the navy of all trees on public lands
with a diameter of 60 centimeters or greater These
trees were used in large part for building ship masts—
one of the significant commercial enterprises that
made use of forest products in the seventeenth
cen-tury
The German influence was felt in North America
by 1898, when German Carl Schenck established one
of the first American schools of forestry in North
Car-olina The New York State College of Forestry was also
established at Cornell University in the same year
Schenck, who initially came to the United States to
re-place Gifford Pinchot in managing the forests of the
Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, utilized
many of the German forestry methods in his
educa-tion program Pinchot, who was trained in France, was
appointed by President William McKinley as the head
of what became known as the United States Forest
Service
The Beginnings of Forestry
Initially, forestry involved finding ways to cultivate
trees and plant materials quickly because of the
deple-tion of wood products caused by war but also necessi-tated by the spread of settlements throughout the world People used wood not only for construction of buildings and fences but also as the main source of en-ergy Thus, as population increased, the demand for wood products increased The settlers in the New World began shipping substantial amounts of logs and lumber to the Old World, where many forests had already been depleted, often as a result of practices such as clear-cutting—the cutting of all trees in a stand with little concern for underlying plants, soil, and water resources
As the population in the United States spread in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from New England south through the Appalachian forests and west to the forests surrounding the Great Lakes, early settlers practiced little forest management or conser-vation Most of the settlers believed there was an end-less supply of trees; not until the second half of the nineteenth century did influential politicians and au-thors begin to advocate for forest management and conservation However, the United States did little to manage its forests until after many trees had been clear-cut for commercial purposes, including build-ing railroads, and soil had been degraded through erosion
The scientific methods employed in early forestry involved managing and improving existing forests through cutting, pruning, and thinning of forests and controlling erosion, diseases, and pests To foster for-est continuity, loggers modified their previous “cut out and get out” approach to logging and also applied science in order to protect the soil, water, and young trees in areas where timber harvesting was taking place Many of these early scientific methods are still practiced In addition, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many nations began to adopt laws and regulations to conserve forests, protect wa-tersheds, and establish forest reserves In many cases, these laws were a reaction to the commercial slash-and-burn practices of the past and the technologies being employed by the logging and paper industries
As the nineteenth century began, Pinchot philoso-phized that forests could be used wisely while also be-ing preserved for the enjoyment of future genera-tions This multiple-use philosophy, that there can
be a balance between economic and environmental factors to meet both present and future needs, is known as sustainable forestry The debate, however, continues in modern forestry—should forests be
Trang 5served or managed for commercial timber
produc-tion?
Modern Forestry Practices
Modern forestry not only employs the early scientific
methods and management practices but also utilizes
many new mechanized and science-based techniques
Today’s foresters use tools such as portable computers
to maintain and organize forest inventory databases
and to generate financial and harvest-yield models
Forest scientists link computer mapping technologies
with satellite resources such as geographic
informa-tion systems that allow remote sensing Combining
mapping and sensing data allows evaluation of
for-ests, such as insect damage, forest erosion, and
po-tential harvest yields throughout the globe Global
Positioning Systems are also important in pinpointing
exact locations of forest resources that may have been
identified through aerial photography or remote-sensing technologies
Today’s forest management also involves special-ization Silviculture is the main specialty that con-cerns management of forests and their surroundings
to establish healthy tree populations and plant mate-rials for commercial harvesting Silviculturalists de-velop forest management plans in order to ensure healthy and profitable yields, while recognizing that forests are in constant states of change, which is known
as succession In addition, genetic engineers are con-ducting global research to improve species that can withstand pests, diseases, and drought in specific geo-graphic areas Controlled or prescribed forest burn-ing to reduce the amount of fuel available for fires, soil conservation and watershed management to en-sure that soils are adequate to support a forest and to prevent soil erosion, protection of forest ecosystems
A forest employee uses a chainsaw to clear a felled tree (©iStockphoto.com)
Trang 6and biodiversity enhancement, water quality
manage-ment and pollution control, pest and disease control,
and climate control by ensuring sufficient plant
mate-rials to create a sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide
and oxygen restoration through photosynthesis are
all prominent features of modern-day forestry
prac-tice and education
The commercial enterprise of plantation forestry,
much like single-crop farming, involves establishing
monocultures or single varieties of trees and plant
ma-terials usually started from seeds or seedlings
Christ-mas tree farms and nurseries are examples of
planta-tion forestry Urban forestry is practiced in highly
populated areas where urban living environments are
enhanced through the creation of green spaces and
the planting of shade tree species and other plant
ma-terials appropriate for a geographic location
An-other specialty branch of forestry is tropical forestry,
which takes place in equatorial forests and involves
harvesting of woods popular in furniture
manufactur-ing, such as mahogany and teak
Commerce vs Preservation
Forests have substantial commercial value not only for
wood and paper products such as plywood and as a
re-newable energy source but also for many
manufac-tured products that are derived from trees and plant
materials Many of these manufactured products
be-gin with a wood source that is turned into a useful
product through the application of chemicals These
products include rayon, cellophane, adhesives, photo
film, paints, household cleaners, baby food, ice cream,
cosmetics, and food flavorings Many pharmaceutical
products also come from forest sources Economics is
important in forestry, and foresters must have an
un-derstanding of how to ensure that forest products will
have sufficient quantity and quality to maintain a
prof-itable business
Global forestry initiatives have taken place for many
years The World Forestry Congress has met almost
every six years since 1926, and the 2009 meeting in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, concerned ways to achieve
a balance between preserving tropical rain forests
and allowing for development Moreover, since the
1980’s, many international entities, including the
United Nations, the World Bank, and the European
Forest Institute, have begun to formulate and
imple-ment global conservation-oriented forestry strategies
and initiatives
However, not all of the world leaders agree that
conservation is the best policy, as national develop-ment varies globally from hunter-gatherer societies to industrialized nations that place an emphasis on the commercial value of forest products Many develop-ing nations believe in maximum use of their forests to fuel their development in the same manner that in-dustrialized nations overused their forests to enhance their economies Although overuse of forests and lack
of forest management in one area of the globe will impact other areas, the many international agencies trying to resolve the global forestry debate between deforestation for economic development and preser-vation are not likely to come to an easy resolution
Carol A Rolf
Further Reading
Achard, Frédéric Vital Forest Graphics Nairobi, Kenya:
United Nations Environment Programme, 2009
Berger, John J Forests Forever: Their Ecology, Restoration, and Protection Chicago: Center for American Places,
2008
Burton, L DeVere Introduction to Forestry Science 2d
ed Clifton Park, N.Y.: Thomson Delmar Learning, 2008
Dietrich, William The Final Forest: The Battle for the Last Great Trees of the Pacific Northwest New York:
Pen-guin, 1993
Lele, Uma, ed Managing a Global Resource: Challenges of Forest Conservation and Development World Bank
Se-ries on Management and Development, Volume 5 New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 2002
McEvoy, Thomas J Positive Impact Forestry: A Sustain-able Approach to Managing Woodlands Covelo, Calif.:
Island Press, 2004
Morsbach, Hans W Common Sense Forestry White River
Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green, 2002
Palo, Matti, and Jussi Uusivuori World Forests, Society, and Environment Boston: Kluwer Academic, 1999 Perry, David A., Ram Oren, and Stephen C Hart For-est Ecosystems 2d ed Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Uni-versity Press, 2008
Web Sites European Forest Institute http://www.efi.int/portal/
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Forestry Information Centre http://www.fao.org/forestry/library/en/
Trang 7See also: Forest management; Forest Service, U.S.;
Forests; Multiple-use approach; Pinchot, Gifford;
Timber industry; Wood and charcoal as fuel
re-sources; Wood and timber
Forests
Category: Plant and animal resources
Forests are complex ecosystems in which trees are the
dominant type of plant Both humans and animals
de-pend on forests for food, shelter, and other resources.
Background
Forests once covered much of the world and are still
found from the equator to the Arctic regions A forest
may vary in size from only a few hectares to thousands
of square kilometers, but generally any natural area in
which trees are the dominant plant type can be
con-sidered a forest For a plant to be called a tree, the
standard definition requires that the plant must attain
a mature height of at least 2.4 meters, have a woody
stem, and possess a distinct crown Thus, even though
apples and roses are otherwise close botanical
rela-tives, size dictates that roses grow on shrubs and apples
grow on trees
Tropical, Temperate, and Boreal Forests
Foresters generally divide the forests of the world
into three general categories: tropical, temperate,
and boreal (See “Rain forests” for a discussion of
the tropical rain forest.) In brief, the tropical forest
consists of a dizzying variety of trees that remain green
year-round, shrubs, and other plants The growth is
lush and usually includes both a dense canopy formed
by the crowns of the largest trees and a thick
under-story of smaller trees and shrubs Growth is often
con-tinuous, rather than broken into periods of dormancy
and active growth, so that fruiting trees are
occasion-ally seen bearing blossoms and mature fruit
simulta-neously
The temperate forest lies between the tropical
for-est and the boreal, or northern, forfor-est The forfor-ests
of the Mediterranean region of Europe as well as the
forests of the southern United States are temperate
forests Trees in temperate forests can be either
decid-uous or coniferous Although coniferous trees are
generally thought of as evergreen, the distinction
between types is actually based on seed production and leaf shape Coniferous trees, such as spruces, pines, and hemlocks, produce seeds in cones and have needle-shaped leaves Deciduous trees, such as maples, poplars, and oaks, have broad leaves and bear seeds in other ways Some conifers, such as tamarack,
do change color and drop their needles in the au-tumn, while some deciduous trees, particularly in the more southerly regions of the temperate forest, are evergreen Deciduous trees are also referred to as hardwoods, while conifers are softwoods, a classifica-tion that refers more to the typical density of the wood than how difficult it is to nail into it Softwoods are lower in density and will generally float in water while still green Hardwoods are higher in density on aver-age and will sink
Like the tropical forest, the temperate forest can
be quite lush While the dominant species vary from area to area, depending on factors such as soil types and available rainfall, a dense understory of shade-tolerant species often thrives beneath the canopy formed by taller trees Thus, a mature temperate forest may have thick stands of rhododendrons 6
to 9 meters high thriving in the shade of 25-meter oaks and tulip poplars As the temperate forest ap-proaches the edges of its range and the forest makes the transition to boreal, the understory thins out, disappearing almost completely or consisting only
of low shrubs Even in temperate forests, the domi-nant species may prevent an understory from form-ing Stands of southern loblolly pine, for example, often have a parklike feel as the thick mulch cre-ated by fallen needles chokes out growth by other species
The boreal forest, which lies in a band across the northern United States, Canada, northern Europe, and northern Asia, is primarily a coniferous forest The dominant species are trees such as white spruce, hemlock, and white pine Mixed stands of north-ern hardwoods, such as birch, sugar maple, and red oak, may be found along the southern reaches of the boreal forest As the forest approaches the Arctic, trees are fewer in type, becoming primarily spruce, birch, and willows, and smaller in size The under-story is generally thin or nonexistent, consisting of seedlings of shade-tolerant species, such as maple, and low shrubs Patches of boreal-type forest can be found quite far south in higher elevations in the United States, such as the mountains of West Vir-ginia, while the edge of the temperate forest has
Trang 8crept steadily northward following the retreat of the
glaciers at the end of the Ice Age twenty thousand
years ago
Forest Ecology and Resources
In all three types of forests a complex system of
inter-relationship governs the ecological well-being of the
forest and its inhabitants Trees and animals alike
have evolved to fit into particular environmental
niches Some wildlife may need one resource
pro-vided by one species of tree in the forest during one
season and a resource provided by another during a
different time of year, while other animals become
to-tally dependent on one specific tree Whitetail deer,
for example, browse on maple leaves in the summer,
build reserves of fat by eating acorns in the fall, and
survive the winter by eating evergreens Deer are highly adaptable in contrast with other species, such
as the Australian koala, which depends entirely on eu-calyptus leaves for its nutritional needs Just as the ani-mals depend on the forest, the forest depends on the animals to disperse seeds and thin new growth Cer-tain plant seeds, in fact, will not sprout until being abraded as they pass through the digestive tracts of birds
Humans also rely on the forest for food, fuel, shel-ter, and other products Forests provide wood for fuel and construction, fibers for paper, and chemicals for thousands of products often not immediately rec-ognized as deriving from the forest, such as plastics and textiles In addition, through the process of tran-spiration, forests regulate the climate by releasing
Forest Areas by Region
Asia/Oceania, 16.4%
(565 million hectares;
1,396 million acres)
Africa, 15.1%
(520 million hectares;
1,284 million acres)
Latin America and the Caribbean, 27.5%
(950 million hectares;
2,347 million acres)
1995: total area = 3,454 million hectares; 8,533 million acres
Europe, 4.2%
(146 million hectares;
361 million acres)
temperate/boreal North America, 13.2%
(457 million hectares;
1,129 million acres)
former USSR, 23.6%
(816 million hectares;
2,016 million acres)
Source: Data are from United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAOSTAT Database, 2000).
Trang 9water vapor into the atmosphere while removing
harmful carbon compounds Forests play an
impor-tant role in the hydrology of a watershed Rain that
falls on a forest will be slowed in its passage downhill
and is often absorbed into the soil rather than
run-ning off into lakes and rivers Thus, forests can
moder-ate the effects of severe storms, reducing the
dan-gers of flooding and preventing soil erosion along
streams and riverbanks
Threats to the Forest
The primary threat to maintaining healthy forests
around the world is the rising rate of human
popula-tion growth As the populapopula-tion grows, three types of
pressure are placed on the existing forest First,
for-ests are cleared to provide land for agriculture or for
the construction of new homes This process has
oc-curred almost continuously in the temperate regions
for thousands of years, but it did not become common
in tropical regions until the twentieth century Often
settlers level the forest and burn the fallen trees to
clear land for farming without the wood itself being
utilized in any way Developers tend to see the forest as
a nuisance to be removed as quickly as possible As a
result, the exposed land often becomes infertile for
farming within a few years After a few years of steadily
diminishing crops, the land is abandoned With the
protective forest cover removed, it may quickly
be-come a barren, eroded wasteland
Second, rising populations in developing nations
often depend on wood or charcoal as their primary
fuel for cooking and for home heat Forests are
de-stroyed as mature trees are removed for fuel wood
faster than natural growth can replace them As the
mature trees disappear, younger and younger growth
is also removed, and eventually the forest is gone
com-pletely
Finally, growing populations naturally demand
more products derived from wood, which can include
everything from lumber for construction to
chemi-cals used in cancer research Market forces can drive
forest products companies to harvest more trees than
is ecologically sound as stockholders focus on
short-term individual profits rather than long-short-term
envi-ronmental costs The challenge to foresters,
ecolo-gists, and other scientists is to devise methods that
allow humanity to continue to utilize the forest
re-sources we need to survive without destroying the
forests as complete and healthy ecosystems
Nancy Farm Männikkö
Further Reading Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Na-tions Forests and Energy: Key Issues Rome: Author,
2008
_ Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005: Prog-ress Towards Sustainable Forest Management Rome:
Author, 2006
Holland, I I., and G L Rolfe Forests and Forestry 5th
ed Danville, Ill.: Interstate Publishers, 1997
Kimmins, Hamish Balancing Act: Environmental Issues
in Forestry Vancouver: University of British
Colum-bia Press, 1992
Nyland, Ralph D Silviculture: Concepts and Applications.
2d ed Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002
Page, Jake Forest Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books,
1983
Sands, Roger Forestry in a Global Context Cambridge,
Mass.: CABI, 2005
Sharpe, Grant W., John C Hendee, and Wenonah F
Sharpe Introduction to Forests and Renewable Re-sources 7th ed Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher
Educa-tion, 2003
Walker, Laurence C., and Brian P Oswald The South-ern Forest: Geography, Ecology, and Silviculture Rev.
ed Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 2000
Web Sites Environment Canada Welcome to the Western Boreal Conservation Initiative
http://www.pnr-rpn.ec.gc.ca/nature/ecosystems/ wbci-icbo/index.en.html
Natural Resources Canada Canada’s Forests
http://canadaforests.nrcan.gc.ca/?lang=en U.S Forest Service
Forest Inventory and Analysis National Program http://www.fia.fs.fed.us
U.S Geological Survey Forest Ecosystems
http://www.usgs.gov/science/
science.php?term=410 See also: Clear-cutting; Deforestation; Forest fires; Forest management; Forestry; Hydrology and the hydrologic cycle; Rain forests; Reforestation; Timber industry; Wood and charcoal as fuel resources; Wood and timber
Trang 10Categories: Countries; government and resources
France ranks regularly among the top five countries in
the global production of wheat and other cereals, sugar
beets, potatoes, and wine grapes because of its rich
soils France also exports significant amounts of
vege-tables, beef, and dairy products as well as some timber
and fish.
The Country
France benefits from its geographic location between
northern and southern Europe, possessing coastal
openings on both the Atlantic Ocean and the
Medi-terranean Sea The river systems of the Seine, Loire,
Garonne, and Rhone favor interior communication,
with only the Massif Central considered an internal
natural obstacle Although France has limited
min-eral resources, it has abundant fertile soils, receives
ample rainfall, and has an equable climate
His-torically, the nation has been known for its
agricul-tural products
After World War II, however, France industrialized
rapidly under extensive governmental promotion of
such development, and in the twenty-first century the
French are recognized for their high-tech products
in such areas as public transportation, defense, and
power generation Among European countries,
France ranks the lowest in the material intensity
mea-sure of its gross domestic product (GDP)—at 0.7
kilo-gram per euro—which some researchers believe is a
measure of technological and environmental
effi-ciency but also reflects the service and agricultural
orientation of France’s mixed economy
In 2008, France had the eighth largest GDP in the
world—measured in terms of purchasing power
par-ity—at $2.1 trillion, with 20 percent coming from the
production of items such as machinery, chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, automobiles, metallurgical
materi-als, aircraft, electronics, textiles, and beverages A
little more than 2 percent comes from agriculture
(in-cluding wheat and other cereals, sugar beets,
pota-toes, and wine grapes), beef, dairy products, and fish
The global recession of 2008 slowed French GDP
growth to 0.7 percent, with an estimated−8 percent in
industrial production France is one of the world’s
most popular tourist destinations, attracting
approxi-mately 75 million foreign visitors every year
Minerals and Ores The mining sector, which began declining in the 1990’s, typically contributes around 7 percent to the French GDP and employs less than 1 percent of the workforce In 2006, France produced an estimated 13 million metric tons of stone, sand, and gravel; 21 mil-lion metric tons of hydraulic cement; 9.4 milmil-lion met-ric tons of salt (rock, refined brine, marine, and in so-lution); 3.5 million metric tons of crude gypsum and anhydrite; 300,000 metric tons of marketable kaolin and kaolinitic clay; 650,000 metric tons of crude feld-spar; 40,000 metric tons of marketable fluorfeld-spar; 30,000 metric tons of barite; 65,000 metric tons of kyanite, andalusite, and related materials; 20,000 met-ric tons of mica; and 420,000 metmet-ric tons of crude talc France has also mined copper, gold, silver, powder tungsten, sponge zirconium, elemental bromine, ball and refractory clays, diatomite, lime, nitrogen, and iron oxide pigments as well as thomas slag phos-phates, pumice (pozzolan and lapilli), and soda ash and sodium sulfate
Phosphorous iron deposits found along the Moselle
in Lorraine constitute the largest vein in Western Eu-rope They once produced 50 million metric tons per year but were increasingly hard to exploit profitably; the last mine was closed in 1998 Bauxite, discovered in the village of Les Baux in Provence, also was once mined extensively, but the deposits are nearly exhausted, and France ceased production in 1993 Similarly, potas-sium carbonate (potash), important in the production
of fertilizer, once came abundantly from the mines of Alsace, but production was stopped because of ecologi-cal concerns and the depletion of the resource During
a decade of neoliberal policies, the government ceased subsidizing unprofitable operations In 2000, mining production in France was 76 percent of what it was in the 1990’s In fact, since 1985, the European Union as
a whole has imported more industrial minerals and ores, including fossil fuels, than it has extracted Nevertheless, from 2003 to 2007, the French metal and mining industries grew by 5.5 percent because of concerns about foreign dependency for certain alloys and ores needed in industrial production In 2007, companies in heavy industry reached a total value of
$19 billion and were forecast to continue to grow into the next decade Sales of iron and steel—including crude steel, pig iron, and direct reduced iron— accounted for 87 percent of the industry’s overall value Other metal and mineral products include alu-minum, composing 7 percent of total revenues in the