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.
