The pie charts demonstrate the percentage of the world’s forests and the percentage of the world’s timber in 2010.
Overall, South America shows the highest percentage of the world’s forests, but does not produce the most timber. Moreover, Russia provides the most timber relative to its forests. Europe and Asia have the smallest forest shares but higher timber shares. Furthermore, other continents show almost similar figures.
While South America illustrates the highest figure for the percentage of the world’s forests at 26.5%, with Russia at 24.2%, the reverse is true for Europe at 5% and Asia/Oceania at 9.2% in 2010. Moreover, North America has considerably more forests at 21.9% than South Africa at 13.2%. South America, Russia and North America account for more than two-thirds of the world’s forests.
By contrast, the timber industry differs from the percentage of the world’s forests in every region in 2010. Russia dominates timber production at 37.5%, while Europe also occupies the lowest position at 9.2%. South America and Asia/Oceania show relatively similar patterns with 15% and 14.3% in producing timber, and there are notable differences compared with their forest percentages. Similarly, North America has considerably less timber production at 12.8% than its forests, whereas South Africa’s timber production is almost balanced at 11.2% with its forests.