Updated 25 October 2001

Forest accounting

The objective in forest accounting is to produce a contiguous framework for statistics and reporting on the monetary and physical information related to forest and wood use. Forest accounting is part of environmental accounting in which the term "accounting" refers to the system's way of compiling annual quantitative and qualitative data related to the environment and natural resources for account and balance examinations similar to the presentation of national accounts. Forest accounting presents condensed information about various statistics materials related to the forests, the economy, industry and the environment.

Information on forest resources, production and use of wood and other forest-based commodities, protection of forests, their recreational use and biological diversity, are all collected in European forest accounting. The scope of description also includes the role of forests in fixing carbon dioxide and as sinks for other emissions and wastes, the impact of forests in controlling erosion, protecting water systems, and in preventing floods, and the costs of environmental protection targeting on forests. This accounting includes monetary economic data and purely physical data on the forests and the quantity and quality of growing stock, the benefits produced by forests, and on the environmental impacts targeting on the forests.

The quidelines applied in the development of forest accounting are those included in the European Union's forest accounting, in the United Nations' System for integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, and in the EU's application of national accounts. Forest accounting offers a useful base from which to proceed to collect and combine economic and environmental data on forests, forest use and the many values of forests, which are finding more and more demand both in Finland and abroad.

Structure of forest accounting