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The purpose of this indicator is to measure forest area as a proportion of total land area.

Forests fulfil a number of functions that are vital for humanity, including the provision of goods (wood and non-wood forest products) and services such as habitat for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, coastal protection and soil and water conservation. The indicator provides a measure of the relative extent of forest in a country. The availability of accurate data on a country's forest area is a key element for forest policy and planning within the context of sustainable development.

Forest Department

Forest Department

Annual

Percentage (%)

Changes in forest area reflect the demand for land for other uses and may help identify unsustainable practices in the forestry and agricultural sector. This indicator was included among the indicators for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) (indicator 7.1 “Proportion of land covered by forest”).

Forest is determined both by the presence of trees and the absence of other predominant land uses. The trees should be able to reach a minimum height of 5 meters. It includes areas with young trees that have not yet reached but which are expected to reach a canopy cover of at least 10 percent and tree height of 5 meters or more. It also includes areas that are temporarily unstocked due to clear-cutting as part of a forest management practice or natural disasters, and which are expected to be regenerated within 5 years. It includes forest roads, firebreaks and other small open areas; forest in national parks, nature reserves and other protected areas such as those of specific environmental, scientific, historical, cultural or spiritual interest. It includes windbreaks, shelterbelts and corridors of trees with an area of more than 0.5 hectares and width of more than 20 meters. It includes abandoned shifting cultivation land with a regeneration of trees that have, or are expected to reach, a canopy cover of at least 10 percent and tree height of at least 5 meters. It includes areas with mangroves in tidal zones, regardless whether this area is classified as land area or not. It includes rubberwood, cork oak and Christmas tree plantations. It includes areas with bamboo and palms provided that land use, height and canopy cover criteria are met. It excludes tree stands in agricultural production systems, such as fruit tree plantations, oil palm plantations, olive orchards and agroforestry systems when crops are grown under tree cover.

Total land area is the total surface area of a country less the area covered by inland waters, like major rivers and lakes.

N/A

This indicator is calculated using the following formula: SDG 15.1.1 = (Forest area (reference year) / Land area (2015)) * 100

A proxy for the extent to which the forests in the country are being conserved or restored.

• Assessment of forest area is carried out at infrequent intervals in many countries.
• Limitations to assess land use (remote sensing primarily assesses land cover), and some slow changes such as forest regrowth cannot easily be observed with remote sensing techniques and require long time periods in order to detect. In addition, forest area with low canopy cover density (e.g. 10-30%) are difficult to detect with remote sensing techniques.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.