FOREST COVER IN ASIAN REGION

Dipterocarpus turbinatus

In 2010, the World forests cover were estimated 4,033 M ha which distributed in Africa (674 M ha), Asia (593 M ha), Europe (1,005 M ha), America (705 M ha), Oceania (191 M ha) and South America (864 M ha). Extensive forest resources are available in Asian region where forest types mainly are tropical evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous suitable for diversified forest ecosystems. Forest coverage according to the total land area in percentage are spreading over South Asia, lower Mekong and insular southeast Asia such as in Bangladesh (2.53 M ha, 17.5%), Bhutan (3.2 M ha, 68%), India (67.7 M ha, 23%), Nepal (3.6 M ha, 25%), Cambodia (10.5 M ha, 60%), Laos (16 M ha, 70%), Thailand (14.5 M ha, 28%), Vietnam (13 M ha, 40%), Indonesia (88.5 M ha, 50%), Papua New Guinea (29.5 M ha, 65%), Philippines (7 M ha, 24%) and Malaysia (21 M ha, 64%). Recently, many countries in that region face severe rates of forest loss and it was over 41 M ha during 1990 to 2005. Since highly deforestation rates in the last few decades, some countries such as China, Cambodia and Thailand were decided to ban commercial logging, and in the mean time some others such as China, India and Vietnam have been increasing their forest cover due to significant reforestation efforts. Reducing deforestation and encouraging afforestation are considered important for both carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation in Asian region.