FOREST OWNERSHIP 
Almost all of the 793 million acres of forested area 
not now in use is in the public domain of the States, 
chiefly Amazonas and Parad. Ownership of the 
remaining 138 million acres, the forests in use, is 
predominantly private (table 3). More than half of 
this area is in holdings that total 2.500 acres or more, 
including cropland (table 4). The forests in use are 
generally part of agricultural enterprises. which often 
are in the form of large latifundia properties, 
especially near the coast. As the size of holding 
becomes greater, the proportion of forested land 
increases. A number of pulp. mining. and railroad 
companies own extensive tracts of forest to assure 
Table 3.—Area of forests in use, by type of ownership, Brazil, 
1950 
Forest area in use 
Relation 
Type of ownership | to total 
Planted | forest 
Natural and | Total area in 
second | use 
| growth | 
1,000 | 1,000 1,000 
Private: acres | acres acres Percent 
Association. ...... 23,373 334 | 23, 707 ee 
Company....... 7. 468 259 7, 727 5. 6 
@hurch: rice 128 5 133 Bal 
Individual...... ..| 94, 046 2,086 | 96, 132 69.5 
Not classified. .... 99 y 101 nail 
Public... cox -.++ ou LOy472 104 | 10,576 7.6 
Motale 2. og ..|135,586 | 2,790 |138,376 | 100.0 
| 
Table 4.—Area of forests in use, by size of ownership, Brazil, 
1950 
Forests in use Propor- 
Average | tion of 
Size of ownership | forest average 
(acres) ! \Relation area per | owner- 
Area | to total | ownership |ship for- 
ested 
L = a 
1,000 
acres | Percent Acres Percent 
Messsthant2oee..cn1 398 0.3 0.5 5 
25-2495 ie a aetenns Wes 14, 451 10. 4 13.8 16 
250-2490 Ht , eee | 34,653 | 25.0 129.5 19 
2,500-24,999....... 39,783 | 28.8] 1,257.7 22 
25,000-249,999..... | 30, 104 21.8 | 19, 347.9 37 
250,000 and over. ..| 18,987 ISS7 |SLis523n0, 64 
Total or | 
average....|138,376 | 100.0 67.0 24 
' Total land reported per owner, including cropland. 
themselves of at least part of their supply of pulp- 
One pulp company, 
for instance. owns more than 400.000 acres of forest, 
wood, charcoal, and fuelwood. 
much of it Parana pine, and other land in the State 
of Parana. 
As in the United States, there are a large number 
of small ownerships of under 250 acres of all types 
of land. their average area in forest being less than 
More than 200.000 land units. two-thirds 
of them in public ownership. are occupied by 
10 acres. 
squatters. 
TIMBER VOLUME, GROWTH, AND DRAIN 
Reliable estimates of the volume of standing 
timber cannot be made, because satisfactory data 
on which to base an estimate have not been obtained. 
One estimate, admittedly unreliable. used by FAO’s 
Latin American Forestry Commission in its Latin 
American Timber Trends and Prospects released in 
1963. gives the total volume including noncommercial 
species as 2.794.8 billion cubic feet, of which only 
5.3 billion is in conifers. Some exploratory survey 
work. however. has been carried out in the Amazon 
Basin, and even though the area covered is ex- 
tremely small in relation to the total forest area 
18 FOREST RESOURCE REPORT 16, U.S. 
involved. the figures obtained do indicate certain 
possibilities. Measurements were taken between 
1953 and 1958 on plots mostly on dry land in the 
alluvial plain and scattered from eastern Maranhao 
to the Madeira River fairly close to the coast or 
Gross volume 
in trees 9 inches in diameter and larger ranged 
from a low of 485 cubic feet per acre to a high of 
4,900. 
ranged from 2.000 to 3,500 cubic feet per acre 
(approximately 12,500 to 21.900 board feet). The 
volume in species with present economic value is 
the south side of the Amazon River. 
Average gross volume in the different areas 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
