350 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FDTtTRE 



Thus, with such a large share of softwood 

 resources, North American countries and par- 

 ticularly the United States occupy a dominant 

 position in the Free World's timber economy. 

 The United States alone has nearly 40 percent of 

 the softwood area under exploitation in the Free 

 World. It stands first among the nations of the 

 world as a producer of industrial timber products. 

 Its output in 1952 was 60 percent greater than 

 that of free Europe and more than three times 

 that of Canada. 



The bulk of the hardwood forests are in Latin 

 America and Africa, but these are not yet widely 

 exploited. Latin America has only limited soft- 

 wood resources but holds a dominant position 

 among nations with respect to hardwoods. Thus, 

 while it appears that Latin America does not 

 constitute a potential source of softwood timber 

 for the United States, supplementary supplies of 

 quality hardwoods from this source may con- 

 tribute somew^hat toward filling gaps in our own 

 supply picture. 



North American and Free World Re- 

 sources in Relation to Those of the 

 World 



The following tabulation and figure 107 give 

 at a glance the relative distribution of the world's 

 forest resources. 



Distribution of world forest resources 



North 

 America Free World Soviet Bloc 



(percent) (percent) (percent) 



Total forested area 19 78 22 



Softwood types 37 48 52 



Hardwood types 10 92 8 



Forests under exploitation 24 66 34 



Softwood types 27 43 57 



Hardwood types 20 88 12 



Timber volume on forests 



under exploitation 22 64 36 



Softwood 30 42 58 



Hardwood 13 90 10 



North America and the Soviet Bloc have about 

 equal proportions of the forested area of the world. 

 The Free World has nearly four-fifths of the total. 

 The Free World also has about tw^o-thirds of the 

 forest area under exploitation and timber volume 

 on such areas. 



The softwood resources are largely confined to 

 North America and the Soviet Bloc of countries. 

 In comparison with North America, and in fact 

 the entire Free World, the Soviet countries have 

 a sizable margin in all softwood resource categories. 

 With only 22 percent of the world forest area, they 

 control more than half of the softwood forest area 

 and 58 percent of the softwood timber volume on 

 areas under exploitation. 



Softwoods are in great demand in most parts of 

 the world and are generally in short suppl}^, espe- 

 cially in free Europe. At the present rate of cut- 



world forest area — 9.6 billion acres 



Figure 107 



ting, the softwoods of free Europe could in all 

 probability be fully utUized there and more too if 

 additional supplies were forthcoming. The situa- 

 tion may be eased in time as more of the forest 

 area is made accessible and as growing stock re- 

 sources in countries depleted by war are built back 

 to former levels. The free European softwood 

 timber supply situation might also be considerably 

 relieved if economic factors and government 

 policy should permit a substantial resumption of 

 imports from Soviet countries. 



It appears that the United States may not be in 

 a favorable position to expand its exports to any 

 great extent, particularly if its own needs for tim- 

 ber are as great as expected. Canada, on the other 

 hand, may well be able to expand its timber exports 

 to the United States primaril}- in the form of pulp- 

 wood, w^oodpulp, and paper. However, the out- 

 look for increased imports from Canada of soft- 

 wood lumber of quality grades is not as encourag- 

 ing over the long run. 



The Soviet softwood resom-ces are not 3'et being 

 cut as heav'ily as those of the Free World. With 

 more than half of the softwood area and timber 

 volume, the Soviet countries provide only 40 per- 

 cent of the world's softwood timber cut. Before 

 World War II Soviet countries, particularly 

 European Russia, contributed substantiallj^ to 

 international timber trade. 



However, Soviet softwood resources are not 

 likely to enter world trade on the scale that might 

 be inferred from the statistics on their magnitude. 

 Much of the Soviet Bloc softwood resource is 

 situated in the very cold and relatively inacces- 



