The World Forest Situation 



745 



DISTRIBUTION OF PRODUCTIVE AND ACCESSIBLE FOREST AREAS BY REGIONS AND 

 SELECTED COUNTRIES 



Percentage 



Percentage accessible 



Total Productive productive Accessible productive 

 forest forest to total forest to total 

 Region or country area area forest area forest 



1 hectare equals 2.47 acres. 



Soviet Russia, and in North America. 



AS TO THE KINDS OF FORESTS, it is 



well known that industrially developed 

 countries such as the United States 

 and those in western Europe require 

 large amounts of manufactured conif- 

 erous products for their economies. It 

 is less well recognized, but equally true, 

 that public education depends largely 

 on the printed page, which is made of 

 paper coming mostly from softwood 

 trees. And advanced irrigation agricul- 

 ture depends on containers for ship- 

 ping, which are largely of board or 

 paperboard made mostly from soft- 

 wood trees. So it is particularly impor- 

 tant to know the availability of soft- 

 wood supplies. 



The broadleaved forests, both those 

 of the Temperate Zones and of the 

 Tropics, have great values, but so far 

 these have been used more for specialty 



woods than for the general utility 

 woods required in industry, building, 

 agriculture, and publishing. Hard- 

 woods can be substituted to some de- 

 gree for softwoods, but by no means 

 generally. Relative costs are important. 



IN RESPONDING TO OUR INQUIRY, 



countries classified their productive, 

 accessible forests into two broad cate- 

 gories, conifers and broadleaved. 



Conifers (softwoods) : All trees 

 classified botanically as Gymnospermae 

 (that is, pine Pinus, fir Abies, 

 spruce Picea, larch Larix, Parana 

 pine Araucaria, and ginkgo Gink- 

 go) have been included in this 

 category. Broadleaved species (hard- 

 woods) : All trees classified botanically 

 as Angiospermae. The species be- 

 longing to this group are generally 

 broadleaved (that is, oak Quercus, 

 beech Fagus, maple Acer, lignum 



