EUROPEANFORESTS
25% of the world’s forests are in Europe
–that amounts to 1.02 billion hectares
of forests, equivalent to the whole surface area
of China or 33.3 times the area of Italy–
45%Forests cover of Europe’s total land area.
Europe is the only region
of the world with a positive
net change in forest area
during the last 20 years.
The growing stock in Europehas increased faster than the area,
which means that the averagestanding volume of wood per
hectare has grown.
GROWING
In this period forest areain Europe has increased by
(almost half of the area of Italy).17 million hectares
Over the last 20 years,total growing stock of forests
in Europe has increased by
8.6 billion cubic meters.
All this means that Europeanforests today:
• Cover a bigger surface• Have more and bigger trees
HOW AREEUROPEAN FORESTS ?
are predominantly broadleaved are mixed
25%
50%
25%
are predominantlyconiferous
Forests in Europe are mostlypublic owned:
In most individual forestsin Europe the trees are largelyof the same age, in generalyounger than 80 years old.
The area of old forests with trees with a widerspread of ages is tending to increase slightly.
European forests cannot be understoodseparately from the human history:
70% of theEuropeanforests are
seminatural
4% are plantations
26% are undisturbedforests, mostlylocated in remote orinaccessible areas
90%of which, 800 million hectares belong to the Russian Federation)are public forest
European forestsare home to many
species that can be found only in
these ecosystems.
Deadwood is animportant habitat for a large numberof forest species such
as insects and otherinvertebrates, and arefuge and nestingplace for mammals,
birds and otheranimals.
Forests are an incrediblesource of biodiversity:
not only because of thediversity of species living
in the forests, but also because of the genetic
diversity within the
The average volumeof deadwood, bothstanding and lying,
is about
20.5m3 /hectare
in the forestsof Europe.
Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe
Source: FOREST EUROPE, UN ECE and FAO 2011: State of Europe’s Forests 2011. Status
and Trends in Susta inable Forest Management in Europe.
http://www.foresteurope.org/full_SoEF
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