Mapping the World's Intact Forest Landscapes by Remote Sensing

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Protection of large natural forest landscapes is a highly important task to help fulfill different international strategic initiatives to protect forest biodiversity, to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and to stimulate sustainable forest management practices. This paper introduces a new approach for mapping large intact forest landscapes (IFL), defined as an unbroken expanse of natural ecosystems within areas of current forest extent, without signs of significant human activity, and having an area of at least 500 km 2 . We have created a global IFL map using existing fine-scale maps and a global coverage of high spatial resolution satellite imagery. We estimate the global area of IFL within the current extent of forest ecosystems (forest zone) to be 13.1 million km 2 or 23.5% of the forest zone. The vast majority of IFL are found in two biomes: Dense Tropical and Subtropical Forests (45.3%) and Boreal Forests (43.8%). The lowest proportion of IFL is found in Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests. The IFL exist in 66 of the 149 countries that together make up the forest zone. Three of them-Canada, Russia, and Brazil-contain 63.8% of the total IFL area. Of the world's IFL area, 18.9% has some form of protection, but only 9.7% is strictly protected, i.e., belongs to IUCN protected areas categories I-III. The world IFL map presented here is intended to underpin the development of a general strategy for nature conservation at the global and regional scales. It also defines a baseline for monitoring deforestation and forest degradation that is well suited for use with operational and cost-effective satellite data. All project results and IFL maps are available on a dedicated web site (http://www.intactforests.org).

Regional habitat needs of a nationally listed species, Canada Warbler (Cardellina canadensis), in Alberta, Canada

“…Canada's boreal region supports the most extensive intact forests in the world (Potapov et al 2008). However, these forests are undergoing significant changes associated with escalating resource development pressures.…”

Opportunities for implementing REDD+ to enhance sustainable forest management and improve livelihoods in Lombok, NTB, Indonesia

“…Deforestation, afforestation and forest regrowth drive the release and sequestration of carbon, thereby affecting atmospheric CO 2 concentration and the overall greenhouse effect (Asner et al 2005;Gullison et al 2007). Regular monitoring and assessment of land use and land-cover change are therefore critical for understanding how anthropogenic and natural changes (such as deforestation and forest degradation) at local, regional or global scales affect greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere (Potapov et al 2008). …”

Recent NDVI-Based Variation in Growth of Boreal Intact Forest Landscapes and Its Correlation with Climatic Variables

“…Satellite images with 30 m resolution from Landsat TM and ETM+ were used to map the extent of the global IFLs for year 2000 and 2013 based on the approach of inverse logic with additional thematic and topographic map layers [3]. An overlapping IFL boundary was derived from the IFL maps for years 2000 and 2013, and the IFLs during 2000-2013 were obtained in our study area, to ensure that anomalies in growth of boreal IFLs were driven by climatic variables rather than significant human activities or serious natural disasters.…”

“…Forest landscape plays an important role in planetary matter and energy cycles [1], especially the global carbon cycle because of its huge C pool and high productivity [2]. Currently, intact forest landscapes (IFLs) are becoming increasingly important due to their significant ecological values [3].…”