State of the world's forests 1999 Association of Southeast-Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam

DESCRIPTION OF THE FOREST SECTOR

Nearly half of the ASEAN region is covered with tropical forest, accounting for about 6 percent of the forest area of the world. Three-quarters of the total wood production is used as fuelwood and charcoal. ASEAN is an important timber producing region (particularly of tropical hardwoods), accounting for 6 percent of the world's industrial roundwood production. More than 85 percent of this comes from Indonesia and Malaysia. These two countries are major producers and exporters of wood-based panels (mainly plywood), together accounting for 34 percent (in value) of world export trade in panels. The region is rapidly developing a substantial pulp and paper industry. Many ASEAN countries are major exporters of non-wood forest products, in particular rubber, rattan and bamboo. This region's forests have global significance in terms of biological diversity conservation.

Land area (thousand ha)	416 890
Total forest area, 1995 (thousand ha)	192 799
Percent of land in forest (%)	46.2
Forest area per caput (ha)	0.4
Annual change in forest area, 1990-1995 (thousand ha)	- 2 748
Percent annual change, 1990-1995 (%)	- 1.3

Product	Quantity	% of world total
Fuelwood and charcoal	294 542^a	16
Industrial roundwood	97 738^a	6
Sawnwood	17 854^a	4
Wood panels	18 418^a	12
Pulp for paper	3 532^b	2
Paper and paperboard	8 141^b	3

Product		Export value			Import value
	Export quantity	thousand US$	% of world total	Import quantity	thousand US$	% of world total
Fuelwood and charcoal	1 822^a	81 403	28	273^a	5 008	2
Industrial roundwood	9 526^a	1 209 375	11	2 034^a	854 250	6
Sawnwood	5 016^a	1 868 729	7	4 104^a	1 117 133	4
Wood panels	14 083^a	5 733 889	35	1 378^a	423 490	3
Pulp for paper	1 289^b	529 847	3	1 177^b	659 112	4
Paper and paperboard	1 683^b	1 360 880	2	2 801^b	2 754 334	4

PART IV - FORESTRY IN REGIONAL ECONOMIC GROUPS

Association of Southeast-Asian Nations (ASEAN)

MEMBERS

DESCRIPTION OF THE FOREST SECTOR

Forest resources

Production of wood-based products (1996)

International forest products trade - quantity and value (1996)