Austria is a small country located in Central Europe with a population of 8.3 million. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps. Therefore the country is influenced by a temperate and alpine climate. The territory of Austria covers 84000 km² (8.4 million ha). According to the Austrian forest inventory (1986/90) 3.9 million ha, nearly 50 percent of Austria, is forest. Forestry, sawmills and wood and pulp and paper industry therefore play a very important role in Austria. The overall utilised agricultural area is about 3.2 million ha. 1.375 million ha are crop land, 1.8 million ha are grass land (half of it are used extensively).

By: L. Kranzl, F. Diesenreiter, G. Kalt (Vienna University of Technology)

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