Employment in the forest sector

The forest sector employs approximately 42 million people worldwide – not only inside forests themselves, but in the industries, services, and supply chains that forests support. Until now, however, fragmented data and incomplete country coverage have left significant gaps in the global picture – and no breakdown by gender.

Together with the International Labour Organization and the Thünen Institute of Forestry of Germany, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are addressing these gaps with more precision than ever before.

182 countries

The new joint study provides the first globally comparable, sex-disaggregated employment figures for the forest sector between 2011 and 2022, covering 182 countries and representing 99 percent of the world’s forest area.

Comparable data

The need for this kind of data is massive. To help build a green economy, we need a clear picture of who works in our forests. Internationally comparable data on employment in the sector is essential for creating policies that protect both people and forests.

Across every region studied – Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania – a persistent gender employment gap is evident. Fewer than 11 million of the 42 million forestry sector workers are women – roughly one in four.

Subsectors

Wood and wood product manufacturing accounts for 58 percent of global forest-sector employment – the dominant subsector by far. Forestry and logging consistently represent nearly one-third of the total, while pulp and paper manufacturing make up approximately 16 percent.

Asia dominates

Asia, driven by China, India, Indonesia and Viet Nam, dominates with roughly half of all forest-sector employment worldwide. Meanwhile, the forest sector’s share of total global employment has declined by about three percent since 2011 – not because absolute numbers have decreased, but because employment across all economic activities has grown at a faster rate.

Women workers

The study estimates that fewer than 11 million of those 42 million workers are women – roughly one in four. Across every region studied – Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania – a persistent gender employment gap is evident. Between 2011 and 2022, approximately 1.5 percent of men and only 0.8 percent of women in the global workforce were employed in the forest sector. The gap is widest in Europe, where 1.8 percent of the total male workforce is employed in the forest sector compared with just 0.5 percent of women. In South and Southeast Asia, the gender employment gap narrowed between 2011 and 2022, declining from 0.36 percentage points to 0.15.

Source: Ewald Rametsteiner, Deputy-Director of FAO’s Forestry Division – 24/08/2026

Photo: ©FAO/Simon Maina