Facts and figures

People and forests

• Forests are home to 300 million people around the world.
• More than 1.6 billion people depend to varying degrees on forests for their livelihoods, e.g. fuelwood, medicinal plants and forest foods.
• About 60 million indigenous people are almost wholly dependent on forests.
• Some 350 million people who live within or adjacent to dense forests depend on them to a high degree for subsistence and income.
• In developing countries, about 1.2 billion people rely on agroforestry farming systems that help to sustain agricultural productivity and generate income.
• Mangrove forests, which cover about 15 million hectares worldwide, are essential to the life cycles of the majority of the world's commercial fish species. Source