Page 14 - 4. Pre-Course Reading-Training on Forestry Audit 2019

Auditing Forests: Guidance for Supreme Audit Institutions

Table 1.4
Types of Forests

MANGROVE Mangrove forests are common sights on mudflats and banks of tropical and subtropical coasts. Some of the largest areas of mangroves
are found in Indonesia, Brazil, and the Sundarbans of India and Bangladesh. Mangroves are highly productive ecosystems and are
important as spawning sites, nurseries, and feeding sites for many marine fish and shellfish. Local people use mangrove wood for building
materials, fish traps, fuel wood, and charcoal, and they gather a variety of non-wood forest products from the mangroves. Over the past
few decades, much of the world’s mangroves have been cleared for agriculture, salt ponds, or aquaculture.

TROPICAL DRY FORESTS Tropical dry forests and woodlands occur in tropical regions with pronounced dry seasons. They are most extensive in eastern
AND WOODLANDS and southern Africa. The vegetation is relatively open and is typically made up of deciduous trees 10 to 20 meters tall with a grass
understorey. As a result of frequent fires and tree felling, many of these woodlands have been converted to savannah, where grass
and shrubs dominate. In Africa, in particular, woodlands and savannah are major habitats for wildlife and also provide local people
with valuable products and services such as fuel wood, honey, timber, bush, medicines, and grazing cattle.
SUBTROPICAL The subtropical dry forests, or dry sclerophyll forest, is the natural vegetation of the Mediterranean climate type (mild humid winters, dry
DRY FORESTS summers), found in various regions around the world. The typical tree species have small, leathery evergreen leaves and the vegetation
ranges from tall, open forest to sparse woodland and shrubs. A large proportion of the historical Mediterranean forest had been cleared
is now dominated by shrubs, whereas many Australian eucalypt tracts and parts of Chile have been converted to plantations. The Cape
Region of South Africa harbors a particularly rich flora that includes many endemic species. Important non-wood forest products of
commercial value include cork, honey, and olives.
14 The FAO’s forests classification above is quite general. These 26 major types can be reclassified into six broader

Individual countries tend to adapt the FAO’s distribution or categories. For more information on this classification, please
classification to meet their own needs. visit www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/fp_background.htm
Basically, forest type may vary based on its status, function, pur-
pose, micro-climate function, aesthetic value, and hydrological
Unlike the FAO, the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) classifies forest into 26 types, reflecting climatic zones attributes.
as well as the principal types of trees. Each of these major Some examples of the distribution of type of forest throughout
types comprises a great range of forests. the world can be seen in Table 1.5.

Table 1.5
Types of Forests in Some Countries

BRAZIL Brazil has many types of forests, and the most important are: tropical
moist forests, covering most of the Amazon region; Caatinga, which
is a dry forest type covering parts of the northeastern region of the
country; Cerrado, a forest type similar to savannah, in the central
and southeast region; Atlantic forest, characterized by occurrence
of tropical and sub tropical forest along the coast (including forests
dominated by Araucaria angustifolia in parts of the southeast and
south region). The Pantanal biome is the largest swamp area in
the world. The pampas is defined by field vegetation set in a plain
relief. Forest plantations in Brazil comprise less than 1 percent of
the territory (5.5 million hectares), and are dominated by species of
Eucalyptus and Pinus. (Source: SAI of Brazil)
water
closed forest
open / fragmented forest
other wooded lands
other land cover

FAO (2007): FAO Forestry Country Profile, available at:
www.fao.org/forestry/foris/img/maps/forcov/fc206.gif
[Accessed 5 October 2009]