Statistical presentation

Data description

The forest accounts are an annual account of the Danish forest area and the growing stock in the forests. The accounts contain opening and closing stocks as well as balancing items. The forest area is accounted in physical units (square km), but not yet in monetary units (DKK). Concerning the growing stock, the accounts are in physical units (cubic meters) as well as monetary units (DKK). The growing stock is divided into broadleaves and conifers. Both forest area and growing stock are broken down by region. Data for the accounts are mainly from the National Forest Inventory carried out by the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, but also from the statistics on felling of wood in the Danish forests published by Statistics Denmark, from the Danish Forest Association (market prices of timber products) and from the Danish reporting on forest land under Kyoto (LULUCF). The accounts are published in the StatBank as well as in general publications from the Green National Accounts for Denmark.

Classification system

The forest accounts use only a limited number of classifications:

• the areas are the 5 administrative regions of Denmark (Nordjylland, Midtjylland, Syddanmark, Sjælland, Hovedstaden)
• species of wood is categorized into broadleaves and conifers

Sector coverage

Not relevant for this statistics.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Forest area (Kyoto): Land classified and mapped as forest, cf. guidelines for reporting on land cover under the Kyoto-protocol (LULUCF). This is based upon UN FAO forest definition, where forest is defined as woody vegetation that has a cover of at least 10% in an areas of more that 0.5 ha and at least 20 m wide, that can exceed 5 m at maturity.

Growing stock: Growing stock is the living part of the volume of standing trees, above stump measured over bark to the top. Includes all trees regardless of diameter, tops of stems, and large branches. Excludes small branches, twigs and foliage. It is measured in cubic metres.

Broadleaves: Broadleaved species of wood are in Denmark mainly beech, oak, ash, sycamore maple and birch. A broadleaved tree is any tree within the diverse botanical group of angiosperms which has flat leaves and produces seeds inside of fruits

Conifers: Conifers are cone-bearing, seed plants. Conifers in Danish forest are mainly Norway spruce, Sitka spruce, Pine, Noble fir and other types of fir.

Revaluation: In the monetary account for growing stock, the item revaluation covers those changes in the stock (measured in Danish kroner) that are caused by changes in prices from one year to the next.

Statistical unit

The statistical unit is the individual forest.

Statistical population

All forest in Denmark.

Reference area

Denmark.

Time coverage

1990-

Base period

Not relevant for this statistics.

Unit of measure

Forest area is measured in square kilometers. Growing stock (timber/wood) is measured in 1,000 cubic meters. The value of the resources is measured in millions DKK.

Reference period

Opening stocks are per January 1, closing stocks per December 31. The reference period for the changes in stocks is the calendar year (the time between opening and closing stocks).

Frequency of dissemination

Annual.

Legal acts and other agreements

Data are collected from other institutions, there is no separate data collection for these accounts. No EU regulation governs the forest accounts.

Cost and burden

Statistics Denmark does not collect data for this statistics, so there is no direct response burden associated with this statistics.

Comment

The forest accounts are presented on the topic page Natural resource accounts.