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Poland Forestry
Large forested areas are located in the western,
northeastern, and southeastern parts of Poland, but the
only
remaining stands of old forest are in the northeast.
Conifers
dominate in the far north, the northeast, and at higher
elevations, and deciduous species dominate elsewhere.
Under the
communist regimes, 82 percent of forested land was
state-owned,
with the remainder held by individual farmers or groups of
farmers. The 8,679,000 hectares of forest supported total
commercial lumber production of 22,675 cubic decameters in
1989.
Already in the early 1980s, however, cutting rates
exceeded
replacement rates, and heavy demand for wood products
prevented
meaningful reduction of exploitation. A long-term
afforestation
program was initiated in the communist era to increase
total
forest cover to 30 percent of Poland's land surface. This
increase would amount to slightly more than 1 percent more
than
the cover remaining in the 1980s. Poland's forests support
the
export of significant quantities of lumber, paper, and
wood
furniture.
Data as of October 1992
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