101. More trees than you can poke a stick at.

OK, we all know you can’t make paper without trees. That’s why globally, the paper industry plants so many. In fact, we actually plant more than we use - about 4.5 million hectares of crop worldwide every year. That’s a lot of trees to offset what we use.

So if it wasn’t for paper, we might have fewer trees growing on our planet. Most people are surprised when you tell them.

Makes you think when you know that…

 

• Plantations make up almost 4 % of the world’s forested areas - that’s 140 million hectares.

 

• The plantation companies actually increased the areas of plantation by 2.8 million hectares per year during 2000 - 2005.

 

• The loss of forests around the world is slowing down thanks to new planting, reforestation and expansion of existing forests - from 8.9 million hectares/year lost between 1990 and 2000, to 7.3 million hectares/year averaged out between 2000 and 2005.

 

• In papermaking regions such as Europe, China and Australia the forests are either stable or growing in size.

 

Sources:	The Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005 (FRA 2005) , Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO
	The Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000), Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO
	Clark, M. 2007, The Future of Trees: Forest Certification Schemes, NAFI Conference, 21st March 2007, PEFC, Canberra
	Vahanen, T. Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management and Trade in Forest Products and Services [online]