Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

This metadata file covers data on forest resources from following sources:

• European Forest Accounts (EFA): Eurostat's annual data collection on forest resources and economic activity in forestry and logging industry.
• FAO - Forest Resources Assessment (FAO - FRA): 5 yearly data collection
• Forest Europe - State of Europe's Forests: 5 yearly data collection

Data covered by this metadata file are published in the following tables in Eurostat's public database:

• Area of wooded land:
  • from EFA: table for_area_efa
  • from FAO - FRA: table for_area
• Value of wooded land:
  • from EFA: table for_area_efa
• Volume of timber:
  • from EFA: table for_vol_efa; in addition, this table has been gap-filled with modelled data using the Carbon Budget Model and official statistics reported to FAO (FAO FRA) and Eurostat (Joint Forest Sector Questionnaire) as input data, as described in this JRC technical report;
  • from FAO - FRA: table: for_vol
• Value of timber:
  • from EFA: table for_vol_efa
• Protective functions of forests:
  • from Forest Europe: for_profnc
• Protected forests:
  • from Forest Europe: for_protect

The EFA questionnaire and its explanatory notes can be found on the methodological section of environmental statistics and accounts (under the 'Forest accounts' dropdown menu). In addition to data on forest area and the volume of timber, EFA also covers economic data on forestry and logging, output of the forestry industry by type, physical and monetary data on supply and use of wood, and employment data. These are explained in the metadata file for Economic aggregates of forestry.

EFA uses NACE Rev. 2 (2008)

The forest definitions are those of FAO - FRA 2015.

NACE Rev, 2 sector Forestry and logging (02)

Forest accounts provide a detailed view of forest-related assets (land and timber).

Detailed information on the EFA concepts and definitions can be found in EFA explanatory notes. 

Data on the area of wooded land and the volumne of timber are collected and presented at national level.

• Area of wooded land, both physical and monetary
• Timber output by type of wooded land, both physical and monetary
• Protective functions of forests, by area
• Protected forests, by area

EU Member States, EFTA countries, the UK, candidate countries.

Data for France cover only mainland France without the overseas territories and dominions French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion or Mayotte.  

EFA data: coverage differs across countries 

FAO - FRA data: from 1990

Concepts and definitions are mainained throughout the presented time series unless indicated by a b) footnote.

Not applicable

• 1000 ha (land)
• 1000 m³ (timber)
• Million national currency (EUR or other) - current prices

Calendar year

No legal base, only gentlemen's agreement.

Not applicable

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Not applicable

For EFA: data released once per year, in December. 

For FAO - FRA and Forest Europe: Eurostat re-publishes these data as they become available from sources providers.

Not available

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on it's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

For EFA: annual

For FAO - FRA and Forest Europe: 5 yearly

Online news releases

Until publication year 2020 (i.e. data reference year 2018) in Eurostat Statistical Book on Agriculture, forestry and fisheries statistics

Eurostat's database

Not available

For more information please see Eurostat's

• Forestry homepage 
• Statistics explained - Forestry statistics

Manuals, explanatory notes, validation rules and checks, and the EFA questionnaire are available on the methodological section of environmental statistics and accounts, under the dropdown menu 'Forest accounts'.  

Processes are described under ARIS process description ForStAcc_Acc - European forest accounts

Data validation is performed using a set of validation rules and pre-defined checks to assess internal and time-series consistency and external consistency with FAO - FRA and Forest Europe data.

Processes are described under ARIS process description ForStAcc_Acc - European forest accounts.

Policy-makers including forest management policies; researchers.

Not available

EFA:

• 14 Member States and two EFTA countries regularly report data to Eurostat.  
• In addition, Eurostat gapfills EFA tables:
  • for_area_efa: variable 'closing stocks' of 'forest' with FAO - FRA data on forest area. (EFA and FAO - FRA use the same definition of forest area.)
  • for_vol_efa: variables 'opening stocks', 'annual increment', 'removals' and 'closing stocks' of 'forest' for all Member States with the exception of France for which 'forest available for wood supply' is gapfilled instead of 'forest'. This is done to align with the reporting of France - France only reports data for 'forest available for wood supply'. (This gapfillling is performed using the Carbon Budget Model, see section 3.1)

Gapfilled data are flagged with s) flag ('Eurostat's estimates') in respective online tables.

FAO - FRA: Eurostat republishes data for all EU Member States. Cyprus does not report data on forest resources to FAO. For France, Eurostat republishes only FAO - FRA values for mainland France, excluding data for overseas areas. This is done for consistency with EFA for which France only reports data for mainland France to Eurostat.

Not available

Not available

Not available  

EFA: 23 months after the end of the reference year.

FAO - FRA and Forest Europe: data are collected 2 years prior to the date of publication of the 5-yearly report. 

Data collection and publication follows a data production calendar. Data submitted after the final deadline (late September) may be only processed during the following data collection (i.e. following year).

Despite agreed definitions, countries may follow national definitions established in their respective National Forest Inventory. As a result, cross-country comparison still needs to be improved. In general, country data are better aligned with the common defintion for forest area, whereas for the volume of timber, greater deviations are known to exist. 

Data for the same variable are in general well aligned among EFA, FRA and Forest Europe.

Good within the same country; breaks are indicated with footnote b).

not available

Internal coherence within the given questionnaire is good, assessed using pre-defined validation rules (see section 11.1).

For EFA: 6 person-months for Eurostat and on average 1-4 person-months for each data provider

Revisions by country correspondents are encouraged.

All methodological issues are discussed at the meetings of Eurostat's Working group on Forestry statistics (WG), revisions are requested to align previously reported data with updated concepts and reporting practices, as agreed by the WG.

Countries may revise data during each annual data collection and validation (Sept - Nov each year). A few countries (AT, CH) regularly revise the entire data series for a good alignment with national accounts and other sources. In general, countries revise data to align with the revision in national accounts or the cycles of national forest inventories.

Revisions are analysed at each data re-submission and revision reports are consulted with the data provider. Major revisions need to be explained by the country.

EFA data collection is carried out by national statistical institutes and research institutes working on their behalf.  

EFA: Annual

FAO - FRA and Forest Europe: every 5 years

Eurostat EFA questionnaire as published on the methodological section for environmental statistics and accounts (under the 'Forest accounts' drop-down menu).

A comprehensive set of validation rules and pre-defined checks is used to validate EFA data to assure internal and time-series consistency, and consistency with FAO - FRA, Forest Europe and JFSQ data. Any internal inconsistencies found need to be corrected or justified and any plausibility issues need to be explained by the countries during the validation process before data can be published. 

EFA data on the volume of timber are gapfilled using the Carbon Budget Model developed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, see section 3.1 for details.

Not applicable

Not further comments