TIMBER RESOURCES OF XORTH AMERICA AND THE WORLD 



345 



panies general economic development together 

 with improvements in logging and transportation 

 equipment is steadily reducing the inaccessible 

 forest area. 



Of the 3.4 billion acres of accessible forest, 1.9 

 billion acres are in use, i. e., under exploitation. 

 Thus approximately one-fourth of the total forest 

 area is actually under exploitation. Virtually all 

 of free Europe's forest areas are in use, but in 

 Latin America less tlian one-tenth of the forest 

 area is being exploited. By and large, the areas 

 in use are the choicest and most economic ones 

 with respect to traditional means of tran_sporta- 

 tion and to present centers of population. The 

 1.4 billion acres of accessible forest not yet under 

 exploitation will undoubtedl}' be put under use 

 when economic conditions justify. Yields on 

 some of these areas may be low and the species 

 composition and timber quality may be relatively 

 poor. Considering the Free World total, it would 

 appear that the untapped forest resources are 

 large. 



Softwood Forests More Heavily Ex- 

 ploited Than Hardwood Forests 



Of the 1.9 billion acres under exploitation, ap- 

 proximately 625 million acres are of softwood 

 types and 1,331 million are hardwood. Thus 41 

 percent of the softwood forests are under exploita- 

 tion, whereas only 22 percent of the hardwoods 

 have yet been opened up for commercial operation. 



Data are not available to warrant an estimate 

 of the total timber volume of the Free World. It 

 is, however, estimated that the 1.9 billion acres of 

 forest now under exploitation support 2,431 billion 



cubic feet of growing stock (with bark), of which 

 35 percent is softwoods (table 191). About 70 

 percent of the softwood volume is found in North 

 America while free Asia has 43 percent of the 

 hardwood volume in forests under exploitation. 



The volume of timber cut from the Free World's 

 forests in 1953 is estimated at 36.8 billion cubic 

 feet — 17.0 billion cubic feet softwood and 19.8 

 billion cubic feet hardwood. This volume does 

 not include unrecorded removals and illicit fellings 

 in some countries which may account for sub- 

 stantial volumes in those parts of the world where 

 accurate records are not maintained. North 

 American countries account for about two-fifths 

 of the total cut of all species in Free World's 

 forests — nearly two-thirds of the total softwood 

 volume and about one-fifth of the total hardwood 

 volume (see regional fellings, p. 346). 



Of the volume removed from the forests of the 

 Free World, approximatel}^ 47 percent was used 

 for fuel and 53 percent was used for industrial 

 wood. The proportion of output that is industrial 

 wood has been increasing during recent years. 



On the basis of data from countries having 

 about four-fifths of the world's exploited forest, 

 net annual growth for the Free World's forest area 

 under exploitation is estimated roughly at 18 bil- 

 lion cubic feet of softwood and 35 billion cubic 

 feet of hardwood (without bark). All in all, it 

 appears that in the exploited forests of the Free 

 World as a whole, net growth of softwoods is 

 slightly in excess of depletion of growing stock by 

 cutting. However, for much of Europe, for the 

 United States, and for other parts of the Free 

 World, the requirements for softwoods are in ex- 

 cess of annual growth and throughout the world 

 the softwood requirement is increasing. 



Table 191. — Groimng stock in the Free World's forests under exploitation, 1053 



Region '■ 



Growing stock (with bark) -' 



Estimated growing 

 stock per acre 





All species 



Softwood 



Hard 



wood 



Softwood 



Hardwood 



North America - _ _ . 



Billion 

 cu. ft. 

 836 

 284 

 275 

 718 

 35 

 283 



Percent 

 34 

 12 

 11 

 30 

 1 

 12 



Billion 



cu. ft. 



601 



35 



179 



31 



7 



4 



Percent 



70 



4 



21 



4 



1 



Billion 



cu. ft. 



235 



249 



96 



687 



28 



279 



Percent 

 15 

 16 



() 

 43 



2 

 18 



Cubic feet 

 1,495 

 1,458 

 1, 140 



970 

 1,072 



575 



Cubic feel 

 765 



Latin America 



1, 465 



Free Europe 



950 



Free Asia 



1, 520 



Pacific Area 



786 



Africa 



1,072 







Free World _ - - 



2,431 



100 



857 



100 



1,574 



100 



1,366 



1, 187 







' For included countries see references cited in footnotes 

 to table 190. 



- Growing stock volumes may not check with products 

 of given acreages and volume per acre because of rounding. 



3 Less than 0.5 percent. 



Source: World Forest Resources, Food and Agriculture 

 Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, pp. 

 1-120, illus., 1955, except for the United States for which 

 growing stock includes volume on commercial forest lanti 

 increased 10 percent for bark. 



