The latest national forest resources survey conducted by the Council of Agriculture (COA) will help Taiwan strengthen forestry conservation and management efforts, Premier Mao Chi-kuo said today at the Cabinet's weekly meeting.
Using the survey results, the COA can build a long-term monitoring system in line with international standards, report on forest resources on a regular basis, and take inventory of the nation's carbon sinks, Mao said. The forest survey should also be incorporated into the national land use survey to help other government agencies better plan land and forest management policies.
Changing patterns in the world climate have increased the frequency and scale of natural disasters in recent years. Hence, it is imperative to lay out a forestry development blueprint that will sustain Taiwan's land resources, the premier said. He asked the COA to strengthen forestation and forest thinning measures so as to raise Taiwan's carbon sequestration capacity and help Taiwan meet its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution goals under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The COA launched the fourth forest resources survey in 2007 and completed systematic sampling of 3,648 plots island-wide in 2013. It also completed image interpretation for over 2 million hectares of forest land, analyzing 190,000 aerial photos by end of 2014. The latest results revealed that forests now occupy 2.20 million hectares of land, or 60.71 percent of the nation's land area—twice the world's average. Taiwan's growing stock also reached 228 cubic meters per hectare, which is the 19th highest worldwide.