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Europe's natural environment has suffered the consequences of two historical processes - continuous human habitation of the area and the industrial revolution. The result is that today parts of west and central Europe have been stripped of their forest cover with only tiny remnants left of certain forest types. The rest has often been used intensively for many centuries. Accordingly, the conservation challenge in Europe is to halt fragmentation and the decline in quality. This can be achieved through the restoration of forests
and woodlands, and the development of a more representative network of protected areas. In northern and eastern Europe the conditions are different, with large areas of old-growth forests still in existence. However, they too face an uncertain future with timber companies and 'cash hungry' governments rapidly harvesting these last untapped resources.
WWF is countering these threats by promoting sustainable forest management through independent, third-party certification - from Portugal to the Bering Strait, and from the Arctic Ocean to the Persian Gulf. The impact of Europe's timber demand is felt throughout the world through large scale unsustainable logging. WWF is attempting to shift the demand to timber from well-managed forests. To this end, WWF is developing Buyers' Groups for sourcing independently certified timber in a number of European countries.
[ Austria/Hungary ] [ U K ] [ Belgium ]
[ Sakha Republic Yakutia ]
[ Finland ]
[ Komi RepublicPechora-Ilych ]
[ Sweden ]
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Land area of European/Middle East Programme region
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4,047,514,000 ha
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Area of forest and other woodland
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1,179,283,000 ha
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Annual change in forest cover
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+ 242,100 ha
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Number of WWF forest projects
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38
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1996 expenditure
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Sfr 3,708,020
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1997 budget
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Sfr 7,100,448
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Number of certified forests
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9
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Coverage
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1,841,543 ha
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Number of protected areas
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1140
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Coverage
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64,578,811 ha
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