U.S. FORESTS IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

A supporting technical document for the 1993 Update of the 1989 RPA Assessment

An understanding of U.S. forests in a global context facilitates discussion and understanding of global forestry issues such as deforestation. This report summarizes world forest resource data as of 1990, and describes patterns of forest use. Forest resource conditions and use in the United States are compared to global data. Global forestry issues for developed and developing countries are discussed, and two issues specific to the United States are examined. The first is whether U.S. forest policies cause environmental problems in other countries. The second is consideration of the elements of U.S. experience with forests that can be transferred to benefit other countries, especially developing countries.

Highlights include the following:

• Developed countries consume timber at a per capita rate nearly three times that of developing countries; the United States consumes timber at a rate nearly double the developed country average.


• The United States has 7.4% of the world's forest land area.


• The United States is the world's leading importer of forest products, and is second only to Canada as an exporter of forest products.


• The United States is a net exporter of forest products to tropical countries.


• The United States accounts for 40% of world expenditures on forest management and 20% of forestry research.


• Efforts to define internationally applicable, absolute standards for judging environmental impacts, and trade­offs between industrial development and environmental conditions inevitably will result in conflicts over both social values and sovereign rights.


• Aspects of U.S. experience that can form the basis of efforts to export U.S. success include the importance of stable social and political institutions governing uses of forest land, the importance of developments outside the forest sector, and the application of technology to resource assessment, planning, and management.

Brooks, David J. 1993. U.S. forests in a global context. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM­228. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. 24 p.