Europe's forest area is expanding by 500,00o hectares a year and only 60 per cent of annual timber growth is harvested, according to an exhaustive United Nations report on temperate forest resources. the report, compiled by the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, covers the temperate and boreal forest resources of 55 countries in eastern and western Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (Russia and 11 other former Soviet republics), North America, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.