State of the world's forests 1999 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

One-fourth of the area of the NAFTA countries is forest land. Together these three countries account for 15 percent of the world's forest area. Almost 90 percent of the region's forest is located in the United States and Canada, which are major world producers of wood. Canada and the United States together produce 40 percent of the world's industrial roundwood and over one-third of all processed wood products, including almost half the world's paper pulp. NAFTA is extremely important in world trade of wood products. The value of its exports of sawnwood and pulp for paper represents one-half of the world export market. NAFTA accounts for nearly one-third of the world's import market for sawnwood and one-fifth of the paper and paper pulp markets. The forestry sector in these countries is a significant source of revenue and employment through forest industries, forest-based recreation and tourism.<

Land area (thousand ha)	2 028 878
Total forest area, 1995 (thousand ha)	512 473
Percent of land in forest (%)	25.3
Forest area per caput (ha)	1.3
Annual change in forest area, 1990-1995 (thousand ha)	256
Percent annual change, 1990-1995 (%)	0.1

Product	Quantity	% of world total
Fuelwood and charcoal	110 760^a	6
Industrial roundwood	596 968^a	40
Sawnwood	175 025^a	41
Wood panels	50 024^a	33
Pulp for paper	83 382^b	46
Paper and paperboard	103 432^b	37

Product		Export value			Import value
	Export quantity	thousand US$	% of world total	Import quantity	thousand US$	% of world total
Fuelwood and charcoal	682^a	38 411	13	396^a	20 027	7
Industrial roundwood	23 677^a	2 884 452	26	9 315^a	472 598	3
Sawnwood	58 024^a	11 862 320	47	46 211^a	7 773 383	30
Wood panels	9 715^a	2 386 590	15	9 614^a	2 398 628	15
Pulp for paper	15 706^b	8 213 371	51	5 741^b	3 850 166	19
Paper and paperboard	22 973^b	16 945 310	26	14 368^b	11 902 824	21

PART IV - FORESTRY IN REGIONAL ECONOMIC GROUPS

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

MEMBERS

DESCRIPTION OF THE FOREST SECTOR

Forest resources

Production of wood-based products (1996)

International forest products trade - quantity and value (1996)