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Chapter 26. Europe

Figure 26-1. Europe: subregional division used in this report

Europe (see Figure 26-1[42] and Table 26-1) contains about 1 billion hectares of forests which corresponds to 27 percent of the world total. The Russian Federation alone accounts for 851 million hectares and Sweden and Finland for another 49 million hectares. The remaining 38 countries have together less than 15 percent of the forests in the region. Europe's forests amount to 1.4 ha per capita, which is considerably above the world average; however, the area per capita in Central and Southern Europe is much lower. Almost all forests are located in the boreal ecological domain and Europe has almost 80 percent of all boreal coniferous forest. The net change of forest area is positive at 881 000 ha per year, corresponding to 1 percent annually.

Table 26-1. Europe: forest resources by subregion

Subregion

Land area

Forest area 2000

Area change 1990-2000 (total forest)

Volume and above-ground biomass (total forest)

Natural forest

Forest plantation

Total forest

000 ha

000 ha

000 ha

000 ha

%

ha/ capita

000 ha/ year

%

m3/ha

t/ha

Northern Europe

129 019

63 332

1 613

64 945

50.3

2.5

70

0.1

105

60

Central Europe

196 358

47 766

4 114

51 880

26.4

0.2

152

0.3

222

117

Southern Europe

163 750

47 397

4 327

51 723

31.6

0.3

233

0.5

112

60

Belarus, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine

1 770 830

848 742

21 961

870 703

49.2

4.1

423

0.0

106

56

Total Europe

2 259 957

1 007 236

32 015

1 039 251

46.0

1.4

881

0.1

112

59

TOTAL WORLD

13 063 900

3 682 722

186 733

3 869 455

29.6

0.6

-9 391

-0.2

100

109

Source: Appendix 3, Tables 3, 4, 6 and 7.


[42] The division into subregions was made only to facilitate the reporting at a condensed geographical level and does not reflect any opinion or political consideration in the selection of countries. The graphical presentation of country areas does not convey any opinion of FAO as to the extent of countries or status of any national boundaries.

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