Estimates of the world's forest resources

FAO staff

Unasylva, Volume (3) (pages 131-150), included an article, "The world's forest resources", summarizing the main findings of the 1958 world forest inventory carried out by FAO. That article included a series of world estimates prepared on the basis of the 1958 inventory and supplemented by other information available to FAO.

In Unasylva, Volume 15 (3) (pages 119-124), an article by P. V. Vassiliev, entitled "U.S.S.R. forest resources and features of their inventory", discussed the classification of forests in the U.S.S.R. and drew attention to the need for correcting the data relating to the U.S.S.R. included in the earlier article. The estimates in the following tables include revised U.S.S.R. and world totals for some of the more important elements of the inventory.¹

¹NOTE: For definitions and explanations, see World forest inventory, 1968 (FAO. Rome, March 1960).

TABLE A. - CLASSIFICATION OF FORESTS LAND

Region	Total	Percent of land area	Per inhabitant	In use				Unexploited
				Conifers	Nonconfiers	Total
	Million hectares	Percent	Hectares	Million hectares
Europe	141	30	0.3	80	55	135		6
U.S.S.R.	836	37	4.1	319	140	459		377
North America	733	39	3.8	252	148	400		333
Central America	74	27	1.4	4	10	14		60
South America	957	54	7.3	8	68	76		881
Africa	753	25	3.4	2	123	125		628
Asia	520	19	0.3	44	192	236		284
Pacific Area	96	11	6.5	4	16	20		76
TOTAL	4 110	31	1.5	713	752	1 465		2 645

TABLE: B. - GLOWING STOCK IN FORESTS-IN-USE

Region	Total	Conifers	Nonconifers	Per hectare
				Total	Conifers	Nonconifers
	Million cubic meters with bark			Cubic meters bark
Europe	10 780	7 120	3 660	80	90	65
U.S.S.R.	42 813	34 610	8 203	107	125	68
North America	36 640	27 140	9 500	100	135	60
Central America	1 080	330	750	80	85	80
South America	8 300	1 060	7 240	115	135	110
Africa	5 620	70	5 550	46	30	45
Asia	22 020	4 620	17 400	100	120	95
Pacific Area	1 320	220	1 100	65	50	70
TOTAL	128570	75170	53400	95	120	75

TABLE C. - DISTRIBUTION OF FOREST RESOURCES

Region	Forests		Growing stock
	Total	In use
	Percent
Europe	3	9	8
U.S.S.R.	20	32	34
North America	18	27	29
Central America	2	1	1
South America	23	5	6
Africa	19	9	4
Asia	13	16	17
Pacific Area	2	1	1
TOTAL	100	100	100