Priscilla Mazenotti
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Brazil is presently in seventh place in the world ranking of planted forests area. Altogether there are 5.5 million hectares of forest plantations in the country (which works out to slightly less than 9% of the country's total farmland). In 2005 a total of 550,000 hectares of forests were planted, a increase of 19% over 2004.

Data from the Association of Planted Forests Producers (ABRAF) shows that the sector employs 4.1 million people, directly or indirectly, which is 10.5% of the country's economically active population.

"This is a growth sector and the tendency is to continue growing in the near future," says Carlos Aguiar, the ABRAF president. "The sector is highly modernized and has invested heavily in research. We expect to double the area of planted forests by the year 2016."

Minas Gerais led the country in area of planted forests in 2005 with 157,000 hectares, an increase of 12% over 2004. In the state the sector employs 163,00 directly and another 644,000 indirectly. Other states with high level of forest planting are São Paulo and Bahia.

Translation: Allen Bennett