Increased forest threat from extreme weather
Baku, August 10 (AZERTAC). Extreme weather events and natural disasters will pose an increasing threat to the world`s forests in coming years, requiring heightened cooperation between regions and countries, an international partnership for forest conservation and improvement warned today.
The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), comprising 14 international organizations and secretariats, issued its warning as FAO released a new report, Abiotic disturbances and their influence on forest health.
Almost 4 000 extreme events — so-called `abiotic disturbances` such as cyclones, floods, landslides, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and "mega" forest fires — occurred between 2000 and 2009 worldwide, according to the report. And recently they have also included man-made events such as radioactive contamination and oil spills.
The CPF called upon forest managers to apply forest policies such as diversifying species, using windbreaks and mixed cropping patterns to protect forests from disasters, minimizing the risks and impacts of extreme events.
"Disturbances are expected to continue to increase in intensity, quantity and frequency," said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO`s Assistant Director-General for Forestry and CPF Chair. "Adaptive forest management involving all sectors and stakeholders is therefore essential to protect the world`s forest resources. And since such disturbances do not respect borders, regional or international cooperation is badly required."
Examples of abiotic disturbances and their impacts on forests include: a major storm in Sweden in 2005, which uprooted or damaged trees in over 1.2 million hectares of forest; Tropical Cyclone Sidr, which hit Bangladesh in 2007 and affected almost nine million people and damaged nearly 1.5 million houses and some four million trees; and the 2010 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in central Chile, which killed more than 700 people and caused up to $30 billion in economic losses to the country.
The condition of forests themselves can have an influence on the extreme events. For example, deforestation or poor management can increase flooding and landslides during cyclones. Degradation of mangrove forests may increase the damage caused by storms or tsunamis.
Observations from the Maldives showed that coastal forests are most resilient to tsunami impacts when left as an undisturbed, mixed-species community. Sand dunes, mangrove forests and coral reefs all help to reduce the energy of tsunami waves as well as retain soil and preserve safe conditions to allow biodiversity to thrive. Although mature mangroves are quite resistant to water surges, there are limits to this resilience.
In 2004, when the Indian Ocean Tsunami hit Indonesia, it cleared nearly 49 000 hectares of coastal forests (excluding mangroves) and significantly damaged nearly 300-750 hectares of mangrove forests, representing economic losses of $21.9 million and $2.5 million, respectively. But with improved coastal and mangrove forests management these types of effects can be substantially reduced.
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