Yesterday the Department of Forestry, the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries (MGAP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), submitted the results of the first phase of the National Forestry Inventory (INF). This work is result of an agreement between the United Nations and the MGAP and it seeks to build a data base to allow for the ontinuous monitoring of forestry mass and its environment, to be used as a strategic tool to evaluate the preservation and sustainable handling of forests and to design the appropriate policies.
The project was financed by the UN for a total amount of US$ 329.000. Twenty-one people participated in this project, including 14 agronomists, one systems engineer and six forestry technicians and administrative staff who worked on the roject from August 2008 until August 2010.
Results
INF results show that forest plantations in Uruguay occupy up to 959.500 hectares, representing 56% of the country's orested areas which take up a total of 1.721.658 hectares. The other 44%, that is to say 662.747 hectares, are occupied by primary forests. The area surveyed for this first phase is 448.362 hectares, representing 26% of the total.
According to the report, although the use of land at forest plantations is mainly devoted to forestry use (47%), multiple uses were also identified, mainly associated with agricultural activities (28%) and livestock raising activities (18%).
Cattle grazing, including bovine, ovine and equine cattle is the most common activity associated to forest plantations. This is due to the fact that the forest provides protection against the wind, the cold and the sun.
Regarding the water streams related to forestry projects, the INF report shows that most of these water courses have a volume of water similar to a river and are practically unused, showing very low pollution levels. As a result, the quality of water is high for a large quantity of water streams associated to forestry projects.
In terms of forest plantation soil types, the report indicates that they are lightly sloped soils which show a low to medium level of erosion for most plantations. The report rates land selection as “good” due to proper drainage which is required for the growth of the tree species planted in Uruguay.
Concerning environmental issues on forest plantations, INF studies report that problems related to air and water quality, species invasion or detection of pesticides are in most cases infrequent.
El País Digital