Detecting Intact Forests from Space: Hot Spots of Loss, Deforestation and the UNFCCC

Abstract

This chapter aims to synthesise what is known about areas of rapid loss of forest in the tropics and boreal Eurasia from the 1990s onwards, based on data compiled from expert opinion and Earth observation technology. During the 1990s, forest-cover changes were much more frequent in the tropics than in other parts of the world. In particular, the Amazon basin and Southeast Asia contain a concentration of deforestation hotspots. Forest degradation in Eurasia, related mostly to unsustainable logging activities or increase in fire frequency, has been growing in recent years. The Greenpeace map of the world’s intact forests for the year 2000 depicts the remaining large forest areas, which usually contain high fractions of old-growth forest. Although rates of forest cover changes are now better assessed, uncertainties still exist about the rate of change in intact forest areas.