B2IELTS-style · Band 5.5–6.5Reading18 min

IELTS Reading: World Forests and Timber Trade

Forests and the timber trade

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IELTS Academic Reading Level: B2

⏱️ Total Duration: 18 Minutes

Forests and the Timber Trade

Official assessment figures and market data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

📋 How to use this lesson

For the Teacher:

Give students 18 minutes to skim the text and record their answers under test conditions.

Check answers by asking students to read aloud the exact line in the text that supports their choice.

For the Learner:

Read paragraphs A to D first to grasp the general numbers and spot the author's opinion in paragraph D.

Underline the sentence that proves your answer before typing or selecting your response.

READING PASSAGE: The World's Forests in Numbers

Passage 1

[A] The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published its Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 in October 2025. It says that forests cover 4.14 billion hectares, which is 32% of the world's land. More than half of the world's forests, 2.13 billion hectares or 55%, are under management plans.

[B] FAO also reports that deforestation, which means clearing forest for other uses, slowed to 10.9 million hectares per year in 2015-2025. It was 17.6 million hectares per year in 1990-2000. The net loss of forest, after counting the new forest that grows, fell from 10.7 million hectares per year in the 1990s to 4.12 million hectares per year in 2015-2025.

[C] FAO figures for the timber trade show that people cut 1.92 billion cubic metres of industrial roundwood in 2023, which is 4% less than the year before. Industrial roundwood is wood cut for uses other than energy, such as pulpwood, sawlogs and veneer logs. Trade in industrial roundwood fell by 13% to 100 million cubic metres, the lowest level since 2009.

[D] The writer's own cautious view, hedged ("I think", "it seems"): these facts seem to show that the world loses forest more slowly than in 1990-2000, and I think the figures suggest that the problem is not solved, because 10.9 million hectares per year is still a lot. The facts here do not show which countries lose the most forest or whether new forest is as rich as the old forest.

Questions 1–10

Complete all four question types based directly on the text above.

Questions 1–3

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the Reading Passage?

YES — if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO — if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN — if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1. The net loss of forest each year was higher between 2015 and 2025 than during the 1990s.

____ YES ____ NO ____ NOT GIVEN

2. The author believes that the ongoing rate of global deforestation remains an unresolved crisis.

____ YES ____ NO ____ NOT GIVEN

3. Tropical nations in South America were responsible for clearing the highest share of natural woodland.

____ YES ____ NO ____ NOT GIVEN

Questions 4–5

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

4. According to Paragraph B, how does "net loss" differ from general deforestation?

____ A. It records only roundwood harvested specifically for commercial pulpwood. ____ B. It calculates the total forest reduction after including newly grown woodland. ____ C. It is measured solely across areas covered by formal government management plans. ____ D. It refers only to the loss of mature woodland observed in the decade 1990-2000.

5. What does the text state regarding international trade in industrial roundwood in 2023?

____ A. Total timber harvested for fuel and bioenergy dropped by 4% compared to 2022. ____ B. Global harvesting volumes reached an unprecedented high of 1.92 billion cubic metres. ____ C. Traded volumes decreased to their smallest amount in more than a decade. ____ D. More than 55% of all harvested wood was shipped internationally as veneer logs.

Questions 6–7

Which paragraph contains the following information? Select the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

6. Concrete examples of harvested timber intended for purposes other than fuel or heating.

____ Paragraph A ____ Paragraph B ____ Paragraph C ____ Paragraph D

7. A note stating that the data does not clarify the biological quality or biodiversity of newly grown trees.

____ Paragraph A ____ Paragraph B ____ Paragraph C ____ Paragraph D

Questions 8–10

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Overview of Recent FAO Forest Findings

According to the FAO assessment released in late 2025, forests cover 32% of all land across the globe. Significantly, over half of these wooded areas (equal to 2.13 billion hectares) are now maintained under

Question 8: ____ (Type your answer...)

While annual forest clearing slowed after 2015, the worldwide

Question 9: ____ (Type your answer...)

— which accounts for newly grown forest — still averaged 4.12 million hectares per year between 2015 and 2025.

In the commercial timber sector, wood cut for purposes other than energy is categorized as industrial roundwood, an umbrella term that includes sawlogs, pulpwood and

Question 10: ____ (Type your answer...)

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