Website: Statistics: Forestry

There are 178 million hectares of forests and other wooded land in the EU, about 42% of its land area. Over the past 20 years, forests have increased by 5% - approximately 0.3% per year - although the rate varies substantially between countries. Approximately 133 million hectares or 32% of the EU's land area is covered by forests that are available for wood supply.

Ecologically, the EU's forests belong to many different biogeographical regions and have adapted to a variety of natural conditions, ranging from bogs to steppes and from lowland to alpine forests. Socioeconomically, they vary from small family holdings to state forests to large estates owned by companies, many as part of industrial wood supply chains.

Eurostat produces yearly data using two questionnaires:

The Joint Forest Sector Questionnaire (JFSQ) on production and trade in wood and wood products. The JFSQ is part of a worldwide exercise in which Eurostat is responsible for the EU and EFTA countries. Our partners are UNECE, FAO and ITTO. The Joint Forest Sector Questionnaire provides us with
- Classical supply balances for wood products
- Comparisons of the EU with other big players.

Integrated environmental and economic accounting for forests (IEEAF) providing data on economic accounts for forestry and logging. IEEAF is part of a Eurostat environmental satellite accounts initiative that started in the late 1990s. There is renewed interest from countries in producing these data, the collection of which was re-started in 2008 after a break of several years. They show:
- Economic viability in view of rural development, which informs the Common Agricultural Policy
- Employment in forestry and logging in annual work units
- The multi-functionality of forests means that economic viability is not the only focus, because forests protect water resources, prevent avalanches and mudslides from hitting inhabited areas and infrastructure, bind CO2 and provide habitats of high biodiversity. Countries wish to know what the costs for these services are.

ESO: Key Source: Forests http://www.europeansources.info/record/website-forests/

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