Coniferous forest, deciduous woodland, mixed woodland: areas

Thanks to a change in forest management, the area of deciduous woodland is increasing, at the expense of coniferous plantations.

Areas of coniferous forest, deciduous woodland and mixed woodland
	1984-1985	1993-1997	Change
	% total forest area
Monospecies coniferous	40.0	38.0	-5
Mixed coniferous forest	3.3	2.6	-21
Mixed coniferous/deciduous forest	14.5	17.4	+20
Mixed woodland	10.7	12.7	+18
Monospecies deciduous woodland	17.3	17.6	+2
Open/young forest	12.5	10.2	-18
Area clear-felled	1.7	1.4	-15
Source: Bosdata, HOSP-97	CBS/NC/Oct02

Trends

A comparison of the forests in two periods reveals that mixed coniferous/deciduous forest has increased and coniferous forest has decreased. This is because more native deciduous species are being planted to replace coniferous forest.

Furthermore, in 1993-1997 there was less young forest and a smaller clear-felled area than in 1984-1985. The latter is because timber is currently harvested more by thinning the forests rather than by clear-felling.