1. Forest accounts in Finland and in the European Union
Regional Seminar on Energy & Forest Accounts
3-6 September 2019, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Jukka Muukkonen

2. Outline
Forest accounts in the framework for environmental accounting (SEEA)
Accounts for forestry and logging industry in the European System of National accounting (ESA)
Organization of environmental accounting and forest accounting in Finland
European Forest Accounts (EFA)
Development and implementation of forest accounting in Finland
Data sources for forest accounting
Use of environmental accounting and forest accounting in Finland and in the European Union

3. Environmental accounting (SEEA) in short:
Brings together economic and environmental information in a common framework to measure the contribution of the environment to the economy and the impact of the economy on the environment
Content of the statistical standard SEEA CF (2012, ‘rather new’) :
Physical Flow Accounts
Environmental Activity Accounts and Related Flows
Asset Accounts
Environmental accounting in EU countries is an application of the SEEA CF. In the near future EU is focusing on physical and monetary flows.
in 2019 EU countries provide mandatory accounts on economy-wide material flows, and by industry air emissions, physical energy flows, environmental taxes, environmental expenditures and environmental goods and services.

4. Stocks and flows in environmental accounting
Stocks physical and monetary
Flows, supply and use by industry and by material phys & monet
Mineral and energy resources: metals, other minerals, oil, gas, coal, peat
Land (space)
Soil
Timber: cultivated, natural
Aquatic resources: cultivated, natural
Other biological resources
Water: surface, ground, soil water
Changes in stocks
Growth, discoveries
Extraction, natural losses, catasrophes
Reappraisals, revaluations
Natural inputs: material, air, water, space, light, heat, wind, other flows
Products in the economy: raw materials, intermediate products, final products
Residuals: waste, emissions into air, emissions into water, dissipative residuals and losses, natural resource residuals
Environmental expenditures
Environmental goods and services
Environmental taxes
Environmental subsidies
Other environmental transfers: e.g. licences, emission trade, …

5. Forestry and logging sector in National Accounts
Silviculture and other forestry activities include activities related to growing of forests and forestry, such as forest cultivation, prevention of forest damages, and income from felling. Logging includes felling and short distance hauling of industrial wood and firewood, as well as making of timber used in its unrefined form.
Support services to forestry include forestry planning and other general promotion activities of forestry, e.g. activities of forestry societies and forestry boards, as well as training of forest owners. Net growth of forests includes the difference between the gross growth of timber and felling

6. Forestry in National Accounts

7. Forestry and forest industries in National Accounts

8. 3. Organization of environmental accounting and forest accounting in Finland

9. Economic and Environmental Statistics at Statistics Finland
Steering group for price statistics
Consumer and Housing Prices
Cost Indicators
Steering group for national accounts
National Accounts
Government Finance and Sector Accounts
Balance of payments statistics
Steering group for environmental statistics
Environment and Energy
Greenhouse Gas Inventory

10. Co-operation Group for Environmental Accounts
Communication with / between interest groups
Co-operation in international affairs
Other possible issues
Members from
Ministry of the Environment, Finnish Environment Institute
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Natural Resource Institute Finland
Ministry of Employment and Economy,
Ministry of Finance, Government Institute for Economic Research
Prime Minister’s Office Finland
Thule-institute of University of Oulu
The Federation of Finnish Technology Industries

11. Co-operation between authorities essential
Statistics Finland focuses on environmental statistics and accounts describing pressures, responses and driving forces.
Statistics on natural resources and state of the environment are compiled mainly by research institutes close to the government.
Co-operation between Statistics Finland, ministries and research institutes is regular and well organized.
Co-operation is a key to effective use of all possible data sources of environmental statistics and accounts.
The development of dissemination (incl. statistical information and publications) is about to start.

12. Main environmental statistics of other authorities
State of the Environment
Pressures
Renewable Natural Resources
Non-Renewable Natural Resources
Finnish Environment Institute
Water
Biodiversity
Air Emissions (excl. traffic)
Waste Water Discharges
Natural Resources Institute
Forest
Fish and Game
Land (National Land Survey of Finland Ministry of the Environment)
Finnish Meteorological Institute
Air Quality
Long-range transport of air pollutants:
Technical Research Centre of Finland
Air Emissions from Traffic
Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency
Mineral (Geological Survey of Finland)

13. Forest accounts in regular production
Compilation of forest accounts by environmental accounts team of Statistics Finland from 1992 to Close co-operation with Natural Resource Institute Finland.
Annual publication 11 months after end of reference year (t+11).
Time series starting from 1980.
Annual resource demand 0,5 – 1 month for 1 person, depending on his/her experience and changes in source data systems.
From May 2019 Forest accounts are compiled in Natural Resource Institute Finland, by updated methodology and ICT- system.

14. 4. European Forest Accounts (EFA)

15. Stages of development and implementation
Broad framework (IEEAF) in 1990s
Developed by task force consisting of Eurostat,several member states of the EU, and consulting companies
19 tables on physical assets, economic as well as environmental aspects related to forests and thus addressed a range of forest ecosystem services.
Pilot studies and statistics in EU- countries
Simplified framework (EFA) in 2016
Developed by task force consisting of Eurostat and some member states experienced in forest accounting
EFA is aligned with the SEEA2012 statistical standard, SEEA-AFF and also fit the requirements of the System of National Accounting (SNA).
Not mandatory for EU-countries, but highly recommended that economic aggregates of the forestry and logging industry are reported annually.

16. Overview of priority tables of the EFA

17. Asset accounts for wooded land and timber

18. Economic aggregates of the forestry and logging industry (excluding other industries)

19. Economic aggregates of the forestry and logging industry (excluding other industries) cont.

20. Economic aggregates of the forestry and logging industry (excluding other industries) cont.

21. Monetary supply and use of wood in the rough

22. Physical supply and use of wood in the rough

23. 5. Development and implementation of forest accounting in Finland 1990-2019

24. Path to current forest accounts of Finland
Development of forest accounts started at Statistics Finland in as a part of a development project on natural resource accounting. Initiative came from Ministry of agriculture and forestry.
Forest accounts were published first time in 1992, including tables on timber balance, use balance and mass balance.
Annual compilation of forest accounts started in Content was decreased to use balance, mass balance and some tables on energy use and emissions of forestry and forest industries.
Compilation of forest accounts was shifted to Natural Resource Institute of Finland in spring 2019

25. Current forest accounts in Finland
In forest accounts, use and mass balances are used to describe the supply of wood and forest industry products from different sources, their utilization in the forest industry and energy generation, and the flows of wood material in the national economy. In addition, the statistics present information on foreign trade in forest industry products in terms of dry-matter tons of wood.
The use balance presents in one compact table information on the supply of wood and forest industry products, foreign trade, use and production of wood by branch of the forest industry and by product category. In the mass balance, all forest industry raw materials and products are converted into a uniform unit of measurement: dry-matter tons of wood. In the mass balance, the tying up of all wood material in roundwood, intermediate products, end products, fuels and waste is monitored.

26. The core tables of Finnish Forest accounts
The use balance as one compact table on
Supply of wood and forest industry products
Foreign trade,
Use and production of wood by branch of the forest industry and by product category.
In the mass balance
All forest industry raw materials and products are converted into a uniform unit of measurement: dry-matter tons of wood.
Tying up of all wood material in roundwood, intermediate products, end products, fuels and waste is monitored.

27. The main data sources for forest accounting
Statistics Finland
Labour Force Survey
Business structure statistics
Register of Enterprises and Establishments
Statistics on finances and activities of municipalities and joint municipal authorities
Tax data on corporation and personal taxation
Household survey
Detailed monetary supply-use tables
Natural Resource Institute Finland
Forest inventory data and statistics
Data on
felling on industrial wood by region
logging outturn and growing stock removals
forestry and forest improvement work
trade of industrial wood
trade of energy wood
stumpage income

28. The main data sources for forest accounting
Finnish Forest and Park Service Operating report
Annual survey conducted by the Agency for Rural Affairs on the volume of berries and mushrooms that arrive at stores 
Separate analysis on the calculation of value changes in the timber reserve by Statistics Finland and Natural Resources Institute Finland

30. Tying up of wood material in end products (in dry-matter of wood)

31. Use balance of timber and timber products 2017

32. Use balance cont.

33. Use balance 2008

34. Information provided by forest accounts
According to the forest sector’s mass balance, as much as 56% of all wood material used in Finland in 2017 was used for energy generation, and 43% was bound in forest industry products. The main groups’ shares of the total consumption have remained almost unchanged since 2012.
A fifth of all wood material was bound in the production of paper and paperboard. The share of wood pulp was 9% and the share of sawn goods 12%.
Production chains of wood and pulp and paper industries are very effective, but CO2 emissions from combustion of wood are at rather high level.

35. 7. Use of environmental accounting and forest accounting in Finland and in the European Union. Experiences and expectations for forest accounting

36. Experiences on forest accounting
The most of the basic physical and monetary data needed for forest accounts were and are well available in Finland.
Greenhouse gas inventory for IPCC and Kyoto Protocol purposes increased the need to calculate annual balances for timber and wooded land.
Compact tables of forest accounts condense information from very wide forest statistics.
Development and compilation of forest accounts was very much benefitted of continuous co-operation between
Forest statisticians
National accountants
Environmental accountants
Environmental statisticians
In a country like Finland with very good basic forest statistics, supply and use of wood turned out to be more intresting than annual balances on wooded land and timber.

37. Experiences on forest accounting
Several frameworks for forest accounting:
SEEA2012
SEEA-Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
Integrated environmental and economic accounting for forests
European forest accounting
All frameworks are based on same theoretical starting points, but focus is in different points: forest assets, flows of wood and timber, economic information on forestry

38. Use of forest accounts
To plan and monitor various political goals and targets
Sustainable forest management
Multiple use of forests: timber production, production of other forest goods, sink of carbon, accessibility to citizens
Biodiversity protection, protection against avalanches, soil protection, groundwater formation, sustainable use of wood,
Circular economy, bioeconomy, green growth
Sustainable use of wood as a renewable natural resource
In replacing material and energy use of non-renewable resources
Durable wood products as a sink of carbon
Increase information and knowledge on forests and use of wood by clear and condensed tables.

39. Forest accounts with other accounts and statistics
In the context of environmental accounting, forest accounting has several links to
Economy-wide material flow accounting
Energy accounts / other physical supply-use tables
Air emission accounts
Forest accounting is also linked to
National accounts
Greenhouse gas inventory
Forest statistics
These connections can improve effectivenes of compilation processes of these accounts and statistics.
And especially enlargen the use of them and forest accounts in providing indicators and information on relationships between environment and economy.

40. Future wishes and plans on forest accounting
European Union
Annual production of forest accounts in all member countries, where forest have a remarkable role in environment and economy.
Linking forest accounts data to other data on environment and economy.
Development of ecosystem accounting, that includes ecosystem services provided by forests.
Finland
Annual compilation of all priority tables of the European forest accounting.
Use for policy planning and monitoring from many different angles: environment, energy, economy, circular economy, sustainable development, green growth etc.
Expand forest accounts to more environmental accounts by including ecosystem services into the accounts.

41. Conclusions Finnish forest acounts consist of two main parts:
Economic accounts for forestry and logging industry
Physical supply-use tables of timber and timber products
Information on assets of wooded land and timber is included into ’traditional’ forest statistics, but could be presented in accounting framework.
Existing frameworks of forest accounting cand be applied to country and country group specific needs.
Applications should align with the SEEA2010 statistical standard (as e.g. the SEEA-AFF and EFA do).