EARTHTRENDS DATA TABLES
For more information, please consult http://earthtrends.wri.org

TECHNICAL NOTES: FOREST PRODUCTION AND TRADE

DEFINITIONS AND METHODOLOGY: 

Total Forest Area includes both natural forests and plantations, which are determined by the presence of trees and the absence of other predominant land uses, such as agroforestry. Data are presented in thousands of hectares. Total Forests are areas where tree crowns cover over 10 percent of the ground larger than .5 hectares. Tree height at maturity should exceed 5 meters.  Plantations are forest stands established artificially by afforestation and reforestation that contain even spacing, and/or even-age stands. Plantations can include either non-native or indigenous (native) trees. Reforestation does not include regeneration of old tree crops (through either natural regeneration or forest management), although some countries may report regeneration as reforestation.  

Percent of Forest Area Certified includes forests certified as sustainably managed by any of the major forest certification schemes. Certification is a useful measure of whether certain predefined minimum standards of forest management in a given forest, at a given point of time, are being met. A number of international, regional, and national forest certification schemes now exist. These schemes focus primarily on forests managed for timber production purposes.  The data enumerate the total area of forests certified by international, regional, and national forest certification schemes. Certifications by ISO 14001 are not included because they are not designed specifically to assess whether sustainable forest management is being applied. 

Data on Forest Area, as well as Percent of Forest Area Certified, were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000).  The FRA 2000 was published in response to international interest in a global forest assessment with a single definition of forest cover. FAO compiles country information to create one internationally comparable database, harmonizing these national assessments with a 10-percent forest cover definition. Forest statistics are based primarily on forest inventory information provided by national governments. National data gathering methodologies can be found at http://www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/index.jsp. In tropical regions, national inventories are supplemented by a remote sensing survey. FAO analyzed high resolution Landsat satellite data from a number of sample sites covering a total of 10 percent of the tropical forest zone. Where only limited or outdated inventory data were available, FAO used linear projections and expert opinion to fill in data gaps. If no forest statistics existed for 1990 and 2000, FAO projected forward or backward in time to estimate forest area in the two reference years. 

Forest Production data are obtained from the FAO and include all wood in its natural state as felled or harvested from forests and trees outside the forest, with or without bark, round, split, roughly squared, or in other forms such as roots and stumps. It also includes all wood recovered from natural, felling, and logging losses during the period. Industrial Roundwood includes sawlogs and veneer logs, pulpwood, and roundwood used for tanning, distillation, match blocks, piling, posts, pitprops, gazogens, etc. Wood Fuel refers to all roundwood used as fuel for purposes such as cooking, heating, or power production. It includes wood harvested from main stems, branches and other parts of trees. It also includes wood intended for charcoal production (e.g., pit kilns and portable ovens). FAO data include only wood from direct sources such as natural forests, plantations, and other wooded land, such as homesteads and roadsides. Wood fuel data do not currently include wood fuel from indirect sources such as industrial by-products derived from primary and secondary wood industries, recovered sources (wood waste from construction sites demolition, packaging etc.), and black liquor (derived from by-products of the pulp industry).  Recovered Paper describes the amount of waste and scrap of paper or paperboard produced in a given country in a given year. This commodity includes paper and paperboard which has been used for its original purpose and residues from paper conversion, including waste and scrap collected for re-use as a raw material for the manufacture of paper and related products.

Trade in Forest Products refers to the imports and exports of the aggregate values of all forest products for a given country. Import and export value is expressed in thousand US dollars. Forest products include industrial roundwood (including sawlogs and veneer logs, pulpwood and particles, chips and particles, wood residues, and other industrial roundwood), fuelwood and charcoal, sawnwood, wood-based panels (including veneer sheets, plywood, particle board, and fibreboard), wood pulp (including mechanical, chemical, semi-chemical, dissolving, and recovered paper), and paper and paperboard (including newsprint, printing and writing paper, and other paper and paperboard). Both non-coniferous and coniferous species are included. Imports are expressed on a cost, insurance, and freight basis (c.f.i.) (i.e., insurance and freight costs added in). Exports are expressed on a free-on-board basis (f.o.b.) (i.e., not including insurance or freight costs). "In-transit" shipments are excluded wherever possible.  Exports as a % of GDP was calculated by WRI using GDP data from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators Online.

FAO compiles data on Forest Production and Trade in Forest Products from responses to annual questionnaires sent to national governments. These estimates are reviewed for accuracy; in cases where the data are questionable, estimates are supplemented with data from other sources such as national statistical yearbooks. In some cases, FAO prepares its own estimates. Data on wood fuel and roundwood production were not available for all countries. In cases where accurate, reported data is unavailable, FAO estimated total quantities of roundwood production. Industrial roundwood production has been estimated by FAO for some countries by converting the volume of finished forest products to roundwood equivalent. Wood fuel production has been estimated based on a combination of household surveys, per-capita consumption estimates, and population change data. WRI calculated the annual average quantity of forest product imports and exports over three year periods from 1990-1992 and 2000-2002. Where data was not available, WRI calculated the average based on available data. 

FREQUENCY OF UPDATE BY DATA PROVIDERS
FAO forest cover data is compiled each decade; data in this table are from the 2000 assessment. FRA 2000 uses different definitions for total forest area than FRA 1990; therefore, the 1990 data contained in the FRA 2000 is modified to maintain consistency between comparisons. While these data can be compared, data obtained separately from these two volumes cannot be directly compared.  Forest products production and trade data are updated annually by the Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO posted the 2002 updates on-line in February 2004.  National GDP data is published by the World Bank in the World Development Indicators each April. 

DATA RELIABILITY AND CAUTIONARY NOTES
FAO's FRA 2000 Forest Extent and Change Data: FAO acknowledges that the quality of primary data available on tropical forest resources remains very poor. The accuracy of national estimates provided to FAO is affected by two major sources of error. First, in most tropical countries, forests are not monitored comprehensively or frequently enough to map their extent accurately or to track their rate of change. In the absence of inventory data for specific dates (1990 and 2000), FAO’s latest estimates of forest area and change over time are often based on projections and expert opinion and thus remain educated guesses. Just one or two satellite scenes appear to have been the prime source of new information for some countries with very poor inventory data. Second, estimates of open woodland areas are far less accurate than those of closed forest because it is difficult to monitor woodlands by remote sensing techniques, and government forestry agencies tend not to survey them as part of normal forest inventories. Differences in definitions used among countries further complicate this issue. The quality of data from developed countries is generally better than from developing countries, but problems still arise with estimates because of differences in national forestry definitions and systems of measurement, and the use of different reference periods. In Northern countries, the boundary between forest and tundra is vague, and the additional forest that should be counted under the new (globally harmonized) 10-percent crown cover threshold proved hard to quantify.  Non-production forests are classified as “other wooded land” in FRA 2000, even though many of them appear to meet the FAO definition of forests. This results in significant underreporting in some countries. For a more complete discussion of some data reliability issues associated with the FRA 2000, please see: http://pdf.wri.org/fra2000.pdf.

Certified forest area: The certification schemes are either performance-based or systems-based.  Performance-based certification requires that landowners meet performance criteria set by the certification body. Systems-based schemes require that landowners manage the forest within broad system components. While there is some disagreement about which scheme best guarantees sustainable forestry, many groups feel that those using performance-based criteria carry the most weight. More information on certification is available at: http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat/EC1518.pdf. While the numbers reported are reliable, it is worth noting that certified forests do not represent the total area of well-managed forests. Many uncertified forests are under sound management. Increasing trends in forest certification indicate the importance that consumers attach to forest management issues rather than the total area of well-managed forests.

Forest products production and trade data: The Forest Production and Trade data is based on data reported by national governments to FAO and from estimates made by FAO. For this reason, the quality of forest production and trade data varies between countries and should be viewed as broad estimates rather than as accurate representations of the total amount of forest products harvested. In particular, wood fuel production figures should be viewed as especially coarse representations of the actual production of wood fuel. This is because the actual total amount of fuelwood and charcoal harvested is very difficult to monitor.  High rates of illegal harvesting of timber and forest products may also lead to significant under-reporting in some countries.  

SOURCES
Forest area: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2001. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000--main Report. FAO Forestry Paper No. 140. Rome: FAO.  Available online at: www.fao.org/forestry/site/fra/en

Forest products production and trade data: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2004. FAOSTAT on-line statistical service (2004 Edition). Electronic Database available at: http://apps.fao.org. Rome: Food and Agriculture Agency of the United Nations (FAO).

National GDP data: Development Data Group, The World Bank. 2004. World Development Indicators 2004 online. Available at: http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=631625 Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.