THE Forestry Department yesterday announced that 441,000 hectares of the island was covered by forest — 10 per cent more than the 30 per cent recorded in 1998 when the last land-use/cover-change analysis was conducted.

That’s 1,394 hectares per annum, but it might not be a true increase.

For one thing, the satellite equipment used to gather much of the data in 1998 was not as advanced as that used in the most recent study, conducted in 2013-2014.

Secondly, the forest type which is showing the bulk of the increase — secondary forests — did not exist as a stand-alone category back in 1998.

And thirdly, secondary forests by definition refer to land converted from fields, plantations and bauxite mining, for example, to hardwood trees. But it also refers to the degradation of pristine forests and is a situation the Forestry Department rues.

“That’s not good,” senior director of Forest Science and Technology Services Donna Lowe, senior director of the forest science and technology services, said of the degradation.

“You want to have more broadleaf forests, because broadleaf is key to our ecosystem services such as watershed protection, oxygen generation and carbon sequestration,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

She explained that while secondary forests accounted for just over 122,000 hectares, including the degraded forests, 41,000 hectares was “actual, real conversion”.

“So while we are seeing some degradation, there is actual conversion too,” she said.

The department defines a forest as land with tree crown cover of more than 75 per cent on an area of more than 2.25 hectares. It classifies them as closed broadleaf, disturbed broadleaf, open dry tall, open dry short, plantations, secondary, mangrove, and swamp.

Presenting the findings at a press conference at the Forestry Department’s Constant Spring Road head office yesterday morning, Conservator of Forests Marilyn Headley pointed out that 94.54 per cent of swamp forests and 78.41 per cent of short, open dry forests, particularly on the south coast, have been lost since 1998.

“That is our main concern. The biggest number of hectares going to bare land is dry forest. [We need people to] stop cutting down them down because dry forest is a slow grower. They are hard to replace,” she later told the Observer.

The parishes that have recorded the most growth in forest cover since 1998 are St Mary (which added 1.52 per cent per annum); St Thomas (1.46 per cent per annum); and Manchester (.35 per cent per annum). All three have disturbed broadleaf — described as having less than 15 per cent disturbance — and secondary forests and fields — defined as having five to 25 per cent disturbance; while Manchester has an additional 797 hectares of closed broadleaf forest.

The parishes showing the greatest loss in forest cover, according to the survey, are St Ann (which lost 1.16 per cent per annum), Hanover (0. 56 per cent per annum), and Clarendon (0.35 per cent annum). Buildings and infrastructure is the common culprit among the three, but fields and secondary forests, cultivation, bamboo, bare rock, and herbaceous wetland also feature prominently in the list of things that have replaced forests.

Also addressing the press conference yesterday was Environment Minister Robert Pickersgill, who pointed to the danger in removing forests.

“There has been an overall increase in forest cover equivalent to 0.41 per cent or 1,394 hectares annually [since 1998]. This increase was mainly due to conversion of non-forested land into secondary forests. If this trend continues, we expect that in 10-15 years the secondary forests will result in greater proportion of disturbed broadleaf forests.

“On the other hand, our analysis has also found that there have been losses in the quality of forests… These changes in our forest cover have significant implications for our country, particularly as a small island state which is highly dependent on environmental resources,” Pickersgill said.

“The loss of our swamp forests pose serious risks to our tourism industry, as well as to the success of our disaster management strategies… the open dry forests that now stand as bare lands have increased the country’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and increased our risk of desertification,” the minister warned.