The world’s forested land, measured in millions of hectares, is illustrated in the table.
Overall, the vast majority of woodlands were located in Europe followed by South America while Oceania had the least amount with Asia having the second least.
For 1990, we can see that Europe had the most amount of woodlands, which is 989 million hectares. Meanwhile, South America had the second largest amount of woodlands, at 946 million hectares. Oceania had 199 million hectares, the least amount of any continent. Having 576 million hectares of woodland, Asia was the area with the second lowest amount of woodland. It is also seen that North America and Asia had 705 and 584 million hectares of woodlands.
Regarding 2000, the amount of forested land in Europe experienced an increase of 998 million hectares and South America experienced a decline , decreasing to 904 million. Despite this, they were still the region with the largest and second largest amount of forested land respectively. For Oceania and Asia, the area of forested land had both decreased slightly, at 198 million hectares and 570 million hectares respectively. Other areas had also experienced a decline in the area.
Lastly, for the year 2005, Europe and Asia had an increase in forest area, at 1001 million hectares and 584 million hecatres respectively. However, the area of forest had decreased in both South America and Oceania, sitting at 882 million hectares and 197 million hectares. Africa had also experienced a decrease while it stayed the same for North America.