Global Hectare

The global hectare (gha) is a measurement unit for the ecological footprint of people or activities and the biocapacity of the earth or its regions. One global hectare is the world's annual amount of biological production for human use and human waste assimilation, per hectare of biologically productive land and fisheries. It measures production and consumption of different products. It starts with the total biological production and waste assimilation in the world, including crops, forests (both wood production and CO2 absorption), grazing and fishing. The total of these kinds of production, weighted by the richness of the land they use, is divided by the number of hectares used. The calculation does not include deserts, glaciers, and the open ocean.