The graphs illustrate the data on the world forest’s and timber’s distribution in five regions: South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.
Overall, it is clear from the graphs that the forest coverage and timber production diverges considerably across all regions, with Africa holding the largest share of world’s forest yet contributing the least to timber output. Conversely, the timber share in North America exceeds its world forest share, making it the leading timber manufacturer.
Looking closer at the graphs, regarding Africa, its proportion of world forest constitutes the largest share at 27%, yet this translates into a disproportionately small timber share of 9% – an 18 percentage-point gap that represents the most dramatic change in the dataset. Meanwhile, North America, which accounts for 25% of world forest, exhibits the opposite pattern, contributing 30% of timber production and thereby outpacing all other regions despite not leading in forest coverage.
In contrast, South America, Europe, and Asia record modest but consistent increases from their world forest coverages to timber shares. South America’s proportion rises from 16% in word forest share to 23% in timber share, which is the largest proportional gain among the three categories. Both Asia and Europe see comparatively minor upswings, moving from 18% to 20% and from 14% to 18% respectively, suggesting that their timber outputs are broadly in line with their world forest figures.