An estimation of original Chamaecyparis forest area in Taiwan and its implication for conservation

Chamaecyparis formosensis and C. obtusa var. formosana are dorminant species in the warm temperate coniferous foreat in Taiwan . They are distributed from Tsa-Ten mountain in the North to Da-Wu mountain in the South. Removing snags and down logs from natural Chamaepcyparis forest in Chi-lan Mountain has caused a great consern recently. An estimation of original natural Chamaecyparis forest areas and its diminishing records can provide valuable information for discussing conservationstratgies for island-wide Chamaecuparis forests. The harvest of natural Chamaecyparis forest began in 1912 and banned in 1989 in Taiwan. Due to a long time span and social changes, timber production records were not very consistent in trems of unit, species, and areas. The timber production record during World WarII was also not complete. However, though our effort, we obtain a ereasonable estimation of original natural forest areas as 102,231-112,250 ha, with 53-67% being cutted from 1912-1989. Up to 1999, Chamaecyparis plantation area has reached 30,438 ha, which was about the 56-57% of the cutted area. Because of strong natural seeding ability and low genetic differentiation, current island wide protection network including National Parks and other protected areas should be enough for their genetic and cological conservation.