UN FAO, 2010 - Two Sides

130
Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010
FIGURe 7.7
Public expenditure on forestry by country, 2005
(uS$/ha)
< 1
1–5
5–10
> 10
No data
owned forests. However, these figures (shown in the last column of Table 7.2) are very
imprecise, because the exact amount of production from state-owned forests was not
collected in FRA 2010.
Total public expenditure on forestry in 2005 was just over US$19 billion, with
most of this expenditure in Asia, Europe and North and Central America. Average
expenditure per hectare was US$7.31, but expenditure per hectare was much higher
in Asia and North and Central America. The figure for Europe was lower than the
global average due to the inclusion of the Russian Federation in this region (which
has a vast forest area and relatively low expenditure per hectare). Excluding the
Russian Federation, expenditure per hectare in the rest of Europe would be very high
(US$30.95 per hectare).
Public expenditure on forestry in Africa was relatively low, but expenditures in
Oceania (US$0.51 per hectare) and South America (US$0.26 per hectare) were even
lower. These low figures were caused by the dominance of Papua New Guinea and
Brazil in the calculation of the regional averages, as both countries have comparatively
large forest areas resulting in very low expenditure per hectare. In the case of Papua
New Guinea the low figures per hectare may also be explained by the fact that most of
the forest area is under private (communal) ownership.
Again, if it is assumed that the majority of public expenditure is devoted to the
management of state-owned forests, then total expenditure divided by the area of
forests in public ownership results in a higher estimate of expenditure per hectare (with
a global average of US$9.47 per hectare). However, some of this expenditure is used to
support forestry in the private sector or to fund administration and other regulatory
activities, so this is not a very reliable estimate of investment in forest management in
state-owned forests.