Tibetan plateau forest ecosystems: Geo-ecology, major threats and recent developments

In the Southeast of the Tibetan Plateau, forested areas are common on slopes along the deeply dissected river valleys of Yangtze, Yalong, Mekong, Salween and Tsangpo Rivers and their tributaries. The forest region is presently administrated as Nyingchi and Qamdo Prefectures in TAR, Ganzi and Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures (TAP) in W-Sichuan and Deqen TAP in NW-Yunnan. In Tibet AR presently 71,459km2 are classified as forest area (5.7% of the total area), however only 39,792km2 (3.2%) are under some form of forest cover. In West Sichuan 119,740 km2 (41%) are classified as forestland, but only 42,130km2 (14.38%) are listed as 'well-stocked' forest. Yunnan's Deqen TAP forest area covers 8,200km2. The overall standing volume is over 2.5 billion m3.