A `forest' by any other name…
Abstract
The Kyoto protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change asks countries to report and provide data on human-induced land use change and forestry activities limited to afforestation, reforestation and deforestation. The terms `afforestation, reforestation and deforestation' have different meanings - country-to-country and from practicing foresters to the general public. The USDA Forest Service and the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations' Working Unit 6.03.02 on Trends in Forest Terminology commissioned a study to be undertaken to gain a better understanding of the terms in use. This study concentrates on the terms deforestation, afforestation and reforestation, but it also examined related terms of land use, land cover, forest, tree, regeneration and degradation. The paper reports on the results of that study and makes some general recommendations for consideration by the Conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for standardization of key terms.
- Publication:
-
Environmental Science and Policy
- Pub Date:
- 1999
- DOI:
- 10.1016/S1462-9011(98)00046-X
- Bibcode:
- 1999ESPol...2..125L
- Keywords:
-
- Climate change;
- Forest;
- Afforestation;
- Deforestation;
- Degradation;
- Reforestation;
- Land use;
- Land cover