A comparative analysis of forests according to FAO global resources assessment 2015

The basic characteristics of forests were compared based on FRA 2015 for the countries featured by the largest analyzed parameters such as forest area, growing stock, wood increment, timber harvesting, etc. FRA 2015 provided data and analysis covering 234 countries and territories that accounted for 98.8 % of the world's forest area. The information on the remaining 1.2 % of the world's forest area was prepared by FAO experts. Since 1990 the Earth's forest area decreased by 129.1 million ha, or by 3.1 %. The deforestation rate slightly decreased between 2010 and 2015, averaging 3.3 million ha per year. The largest loss of forests was observed in Brazil (on the average, 2,127,000 ha per year, or 0.4 % of the country's forest area). The forest area shrinked mainly in tropical and subtropical climate countries. The Russian Federation is at the top of the list of the most forested countries with its forest area amounting to 815 million ha, or 20.4 % of total world's forest area. In 2015 the total world's stemwood volume amounted to 530.5 billion m3. The largest growing stock fell to the share of Brazilian forests (96.8 billion m3) with the Russian Federation ranking second. The largest values of average growing stock per hectare were observed in subtropical and and moderate climate countries. The Russian Federation lies in the middle with 100 m3 per hectare, thus being not included in the top15 for this indicator. Given the general trend of reduction of the forest area worldwide, the growing stock increased. By 2015 the rate of increasing the growing stock reached 928 million m3/year that exceeded the losses from the forest area reduction by 490 million m3/year. The total biomass stock of stems, roots, branches, and etc. in the world's forests amounted to 296 billion tons of carbon. According to authors, this estimate was obviously understated. According to FRA-2015, the carbon stock in the forest biomass reduced over the preceding 25 years by nearly 17.4 billion tons. Russian Federation's forests accounted for 11.1 % of the total biomass carbon stock. From 1990 to 2015, the area of world's forests within protected areas increased by 201 million ha. The total wood removal (timber harvesting) in the world amounted to some 3.0 billion m3. Most countries reported the reduced timber harvestiing volumes as compared to the year 1990. The exception is provided by India, China, and Poland. According to FRA 2015, from 2003 to 2012 some 209 million ha of world's forests were annually lost owing to damages including forest fires (67 million ha), pests and diseases (99 million ha), windbreaks (38 million ha) and unknown factors (5 million ha). The most severe damage was caused by wildfires. The analysis of FRA 2015 findings confirmed the leadership of the Russian Federation in a wide range of critical indicators describing forest resources, forest protection, forest conservation, forest restoration and forest use.