Chapter 8 : Guidelines for implementation of forest accounts

This final chapter discusses the major data sources for forest accounts and provides a standard set of tables for them.

8.1 Data sources

The major data sources that are common to many countries are listed in Table 8.1. The coverage of these data sources will vary by country. For example, the national accounts of some countries may include most NTFP, while those of others may not. Most of the common data sources focus heavily on commercial products. The new guidelines for forest resource assessments include non‑timber and non-market forest goods and services. As this is implemented, coverage of this important aspect of forest resources will improve: more products will be covered and in a more consistent manner across countries. As such, these assessments could become an important tool for building forest accounts.

Several major weaknesses remain in the available data:

At a minimum, it would be useful to disaggregate forest accounts spatially and link them to population figures to indicate average per capita use of forest products. Useful additional information includes, for example, the share of total household consumption that forest products comprise and the dependence on forest products by different categories of households within a community. It is possible to collect information about household consumption in surveys of NTFP. It might also be possible to link forest utilization with periodic household income and expenditure surveys that are undertaken at the national level in many developing countries.

Table 8.1:        Major data sources for constructing forest accounts

8.2 Standard tables for constructing forest accounts

This chapter contains the set of tables for compiling forest accounts, as described in Chapters 6 and 7. The tables are mostly adapted from Eurostat 2002a, 2002b and modified where necessary to comply with the terminology used in SEEA (UN et al., 2003). They are intended to provide general guidance in the construction of forest accounts. In implementing forest accounts, countries may find it useful to expand or modify some of the classifications to suit local circumstances and policy needs. These accounts may be implemented at the national level or for individual forests or regions within a country. The tables include:

Forest balance accounts

The first five tables constitute forest balance accounts: asset accounts for forestland and for standing timber in both physical and monetary units, and accounts for forest health. These tables are intended to represent the general form of forest accounts and should be compiled on a more detailed basis for each category of forest as described in Chapters 6 and 7, that is, by dominant species of tree, naturalness of the forest, protection status and for regions within a country.

Table 8.1a:      Forest asset accounts:  area of wooded land (1000 hectares)

Table 8.1b:     Forest asset accounts: value of wooded land (million national monetary units)

Changes due to economic activity: afforestation, the increase in wooded land area due to human activity, and deforestation, the reduction in area due to human activity such as forest clearing for agriculture.

Other changes: changes in area due to natural causes such as natural expansion or colonization or natural regression, or for other reasons which cannot be determined

 Changes in classification: changes in classification such as a reclassification of forestland from available for wood supply to not available for wood supply, rec orded as a negative entry for the initial category and a positive entry for the final category.

Revaluation: change in value due to change in prices between beginning and end of the period.

Table 8.2a:      Forest asset accounts: volume of standing timber (1000 m3)

Table 8.2b:     Forest asset accounts: value of standing timber (million national monetary units)

Notes:

Gross annual increment: the volume of natural growth during the period.

Removals: fellings removed during the accounting period including timber that was felled but not removed in an earlier period.

Other changes: all reductions in standing timber that are not removed, such as thinnings or trees killed by natural causes that are left in the forest.

Changes in classification: changes in classification of standing timber by type of land during the period, recorded as a negative entry for the initial category and a positive entry for the final category.

Revaluation: change in value due to change in prices between beginning and end of the period.