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Part II: Forest resources by region


Chapter 11. Africa
Chapter 12. Africa: ecological zones
Chapter 13. North Africa
Chapter 14. West Africa
Chapter 15. Central Africa
Chapter 16. East Africa
Chapter 17. Southern Africa
Chapter 18. Africa - small islands
Chapter 19. Asia
Chapter 20. Asia: ecological zones
Chapter 21. West Asia
Chapter 22. Central Asia
Chapter 23. South Asia
Chapter 24. Southeast Asia
Chapter 25. East Asia
Chapter 26. Europe
Chapter 27. Europe: ecological zones
Chapter 28. Northern Europe
Chapter 29. Central Europe
Chapter 30. Southern Europe
Chapter 31. Belarus, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine
Chapter 32. North and Central America and the Caribbean
Chapter 33. North and Central America: ecological zones
Chapter 34. North America, excluding Mexico
Chapter 35. Central America and Mexico
Chapter 36. Caribbean
Chapter 37. Oceania
Chapter 38. Oceania: ecological zones
Chapter 39. Australia and New Zealand
Chapter 40. Other Oceania
Chapter 41. South America
Chapter 42. South America: ecological zones
Chapter 43. Tropical South America
Chapter 44. Non-tropical South America


Chapter 11. Africa

Figure 11-1. Africa: subregional division used in this report

Africa (see Figure 11-1[27] and Table 11-1) contains about 650 million hectares of forests, corresponding to 17 percent of the world total. African forests amount to 0.85 ha per capita, which is close to the world average. Almost all forests are located in the tropical ecological domain, and Africa has about one-quarter of all tropical rain forests. Only 1 percent of the forest area is classified as forest plantations. The net change of forest area is the highest among the world's regions, with an annual net loss, based on country reports, estimated at -5.3 million hectares annually, corresponding to -0.78 percent annually.

Table 11-1. Africa: forest resources by subregion

Subregion

 

Land area

Forest area 2000

Area change 1990-2000 (total forest)

Volume and above-ground biomass (total forest)

Natural forest

Forest plan-tation

Total forest

ha

ha

ha

ha

%

ha/ capita

ha/ year

%

m3/ha

t/ha

Central Africa

403 298

227 377

634

228 011

56.5

2.6

-852

-0.4

127

194

East Africa

590 078

134 132

1 291

135 423

23.0

0.7

-1 357

-1.0

28

38

North Africa

601 265

4 569

1 693

6 262

1.0

n.s.

33

0.5

32

51

Southern Africa

649 213

192 253

2 601

194 854

30.0

1.6

-1 741

-0.9

42

72

West Africa

733 359

83 369

1 710

85 079

11.6

0.4

-1 351

-1.5

61

84

Africa - small islands

1 181

130

107

237

20.1

0.1

4

1.9

88

121

Total Africa

2 978 394

641 830

8 036

649 866

21.8

0.8

-5 262

-0.8

72

109

TOTAL WORLD

13 063 900

3 682 722

186 733

3 869 455

29.6

0.6

-9 391

-0.2

100

109

Source: Appendix 3, Tables 3, 4, 6 and 7.


[27] The division into subregions was made only to facilitate the reporting at a condensed geographical level and does not reflect any opinion or political consideration in the selection of countries. The graphical presentation of country areas does not convey any opinion of FAO as to the extent of countries or status of any national boundaries. see www.fao.org/foundry/fo/country/nav_world.jsp

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