Afforestation

Plantations

Approximately 45 percent of the mentioned forest resurgence is a result of the expansion of plantation forests established through afforestation, reforestation, and conversion of primary forest. It is estimated that half of the 139.1 million ha of plantations are established through reforestation and afforestation, and half through deforestation and conversion of natural forest in the tropics. Extensive plantation establishment on agricultural land occurred during 1990–2005 in eastern China, southern Europe, and several other industrialized and industrializing nations. The majority (78 percent) of plantations are established for wood and fiber production, with the rest (22 percent) established primarily for soil and water protection purposes. Between 1990 and 2005, productive plantations increased 2.2 million ha/year, whereas protective plantations increased by 380,000 ha/year.

Reforestation and afforestation projects, such as these thousands of newly planted pine trees, reduced the annual net loss of the world's forest cover to 7.3 million hectares between 2000 and 2005.

Source:http://iStockphoto.com

Forest Transition Theory

Drawing on data primarily from developed countries, forest transition theory postulates that economic development leads to a predictable transition from a period of forest contraction to a period of forest expansion (with no distinction made between afforestation and reforestation). Thomas Rudel expanded on forest transition theory and proposed two paths in this forest transition: “the economic development path” and “the forest scarcity path.” In the economic development path, increased economic opportunity leads to an increase in nonfarm jobs, leading to an abandonment of agricultural lands followed by spontaneous forest regeneration. Alternatively, the forest scarcity path occurs when landowners plant trees in response to a shortage of forest products. Kathleen Farley proposed a third path, “the reverse economic development path,” by which afforestation, funded through national or international forestry programs and, more recently, carbon sequestration initiatives, “seeks” rather than responds to economic development.

Benefits of Afforestation

Afforestation is promoted to support a range of economic, social, and environmental initiatives. Although accounting for approximately 3.5 percent of the total forest area, timber plantations, for example, are approaching 50 percent of global wood production. Tree plantations can additionally provide important revenue for landowners through the extraction of fuel wood and nontimber forest products. Shade coffee production also has [Page 6]led to increased tree cover in Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica, some of which has been established on land deforested more than 50 years ago. Many governments also support forest expansion with the perception that planting trees enhances environmental conditions through decreasing erosion, improving soil and water quality, and increasing water supply. More recently, global climate initiatives, such as the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism, have supported afforestation and reforestation projects because of their potential to sequester carbon.

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