SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

State of the Basin Report - 2003Deforestation is compared with reforestation and regrowth in Table 9. In all four countries, deforestationand reforestation/regrowth have been taking place simultaneously, with the latter partly compensatingfor the former. The Net Forest Cover Loss of Table 8 equals Deforestation minus Reforestation &Regrowth. Lao PDR has suffered the largest net forest cover loss in absolute terms, while Viet Namhas lost the greatest percentage of its forest cover. The LMB as a whole has lost close to 500,000 ha,or slightly over 2 percent of its forest cover within only four years.Table 9. Deforestation and reforestation & regrowth 1993 – 1997Area Deforestation Reforest. & regrowth Net forest cover lossha % ha % ha %Cambodia 194,800 2.1 12,190 0.1 182,610 2.0Lao PDR 212,263 2.4 10,360 0.1 201,903 2.3Thailand 49,982 1.6 1,297 0.0 48,685 1.6Viet Nam 77,427 4.6 29,092 1.7 48,335 2.9LMB 534,472 2.3 52,939 0.2 481,533 2.1Note: % values refer to Forest Cover 1993 of the respective Area in Table 7.There have been significant differences in the ratio of deforestation versus reforestation andregrowth in the individual countries. Reforestation programmes, while legally required of manylogging concessionaires and generally accorded a high priority by LMB governments, have hadvaried success. On the whole they lag behind deforestation by a substantial margin. Viet Nam hashad the most success in this area and has compensated for over one third of the deforestation it hasexperienced through reforestation and regrowth. This is most likely related to the government’srecent reforestation efforts: almost 90 percent of the total reforestation and regrowth found inViet Nam during the period observed was made up of forest plantations. 26 Reforestation rates inthe other three countries are much lower, and in all four countries are far from sufficient to stabiliseforest area.There is also cause for concern about the nature of reforestation efforts. There is ageneral bias towards mono-culture, resulting in decreasing bio-diversity. Furthermore, survivalrates for planted trees are low due to poor planning, use of inappropriate species and insufficientinstitutional support. 27For easier comparison, the Net Forest Cover Loss of Table 9 can be expressed in the form of annualdeforestation rates shown in Table 10. For example, the rate given for the LMB means that theregion as a whole has annually lost an average 0.53 percent of its forest cover during the periodobserved.Table 10. Annual deforestation rates 1993 – 1997Area Deforestation rate %Cambodia 0.50Lao PDR 0.58Thailand 0.40Viet Nam 0.73LMB 0.53192