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FAO, in its report ‘Global Forests Resources Assessment-2005’, also known as FRA, estimated total forests of world as 3,952 million hectares, which is about 30 per cent of total land area of world.
This corresponds to an average of 0.62 hectare per capita forest land. Total area of other wooded land is estimated as 1,376 million hectares, which is about one-third of total forests. The forests are unevenly distributed in the world.
The ten largest countries (Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, United States, China, Australia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Peru and India) in terms of forests account for about two-thirds of total forests.
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Forty-five countries have more than half of their total land area under forests, and 11 of these have more than 75 per cent of their total land area under forests, on the other end sixty-four countries have less than 10 per cent of their total land area covered by forests. Seven countries of these have no forest land at all, and additional 57 have forests on less than 10 per cent of their total land area.
Presently, South America has highest percentage of forest cover as about half (48%) of the region is under forests, followed by Europe (about 44%) and North and Central America (about 33%). On the other hand, Asia and Africa have lowest percentage of forest cover as 18.5 and 21 per cent respectively. Only South America, Europe and
North and Central America fulfill the threshold of 33 per cent of forests for maintaining ecological balance. Other regions, viz., Africa, Asia and Oceania are in critical situation as far as minimum requirements of forests are concerned for maintaining ecological balance (Table 1.1).
FRA also characterized forests and other wooded land in five classes, viz., primary forests (forests of native species, with no clearly visible indications of human activities and ecological processes are not significantly disturbed), modified natural forests (forests of naturally regenerated native species, with clearly visible indications of human activities), semi-natural forests (forests comprising native species, established through plantation, seeding or assisted natural regeneration), protective forest plantations and productive forest plantations.
Primary forests are estimated as about 36 per cent of total forest cover, while modified natural forests and semi-natural forests account for 53 and 7 per cent of total forests respectively. Plantation forests (productive and protective forest plantation), consisting primarily of introduced species, account for about 4 per cent of total forests.
Productive forest plantations, which are primarily established for wood and fibre production, account for about 78 per cent of total plantation, whereas protective forest plantations, primarily established for conservation of soil and water, account for about 22 per cent (Figure 1.2).
