Can't say I agree about the forests here compared to Europe. Almost all the native forests in Europe are gone and there are still a few left here, though they do keep trying to cut those down. I love the rainforests the best, but the wet sclerophyll forests are almost as good. Bit messy by European standards, but maybe the original forests (Little Red Riding Hood type forests) were also a bit messy. Everything is nicely manicured now, but that is due to human intervention. I lived in England for about 6 years and it was great, lots of history, but we have history too, we just pretend it only started with Captain Cook. Our limits are self imposed.
Anyway, back to the subject. I think we are a bit of a backwater when it comes to professional photography, but that is inevitable as there are few paying customers here. Given the numbers, I think we manage pretty well overall. As for the total world of photography, pro and amateur, I think we stand up pretty well really. Of course there will be many more great photographers from the rest of the world, but then we only have about 0.4% of the worlds population. I suspect we have more than 0.4% of the best photographers, though I couldn't name them.