Republic of Congo highlighted across views

Forest Cover, Protection, and Economic Dependence

World Bank indicators for 10 countries, 2000–2022. The dashboard tests two assumptions: whether heavily forested countries rely most on forestry-related activity, and whether more protected land is associated with a smaller forest economy footprint.

Forest ↔ economy correlation
Weak positive
Country-average forest cover vs. agriculture/forestry/fishing share of GDP
Protection ↔ economy correlation
Moderate negative
Cross-country only; the time path is less mechanical
Congo, Rep. forest cover
Average forest share of land across 2000–2022
Congo, Rep. protected land
Highest in sample
Average protected-area share since data becomes available
Contrarian read

Forest abundance and sector dependence do not move one-for-one in this 10-country panel. The forest-cover/economic-share correlation is , while the most forested country is at rather than the country with the highest agriculture/forestry/fishing share.

That top sector-share position belongs to at , which suggests that institutional structure and development profile matter more than tree cover alone.

The protection story is also mixed. Cross-sectionally, more protected land is associated with a lower sector share on average (), but Republic of Congo remains a useful counterexample because its protected share is highest in the sample while its economy share is , not near zero.

Republic of Congo focus

Average forest cover: . Average agriculture/forestry/fishing share: . Average protected land: .

From 2000 to 2022, forest cover changed by while sector share changed by .

From 2013 to 2022, protected land changed by and sector share changed by , which does not show a simple protection-led contraction.

Use hover details on each chart for exact country-year values.
G1. Average forest cover vs. average forestry-related GDP share
Country labels stay on-chart; Republic of Congo is highlighted in gold.
G1/G2. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing share of GDP over time
All 10 countries are shown with Republic of Congo and the 10-country average emphasized.
G1/G2. Forest cover over time
Forest cover is comparatively stable for Republic of Congo, even as economic reliance varies more widely elsewhere.
Protected land over time
Protected-area values begin in 2013 in this dataset; Republic of Congo remains the highest-protection case.
Protected land vs. forestry-related GDP share
Bubble size represents average forest cover, testing whether more protection systematically shrinks economic dependence.
Republic of Congo path: protection and economy, 2013–2022
A connected scatter compares Republic of Congo with the 10-country average after protected-area data starts.
Country averages snapshot
Country Group Avg forest % land Avg agri/forestry/fishing % GDP Avg protected % land