Statistical Indicator System for Forestry and Forest Exploitation

One of the main objectives of the development of the Romanian statistical indicators system for forestry and forest exploitation was the harmonization of the statistical information characterizing the forest area and other lands covered by forest vegetation with the European forest statistical system standards (EUROSTAT) and other international bodies (United National Organization for Agriculture and food - FAO, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - OECD, International Tropical Timber Organization). During the development of the Romanian system of statistical indicators for forestry and forest exploitation it was considered that it should present the highest degree of representativity at all reference levels (local, regional-county and national). Also, one of the aims was that the system should allow the establishment and appropriate knowledge on the indicators as content, legislative framework, political and environment context, establishing methodology and available data sources, possibilities to establish them and the presentation method for each indicator. This system contains 25 statistical indicators included in 6 groups according to their content, with special reference to the general characteristics of the forests and other wooded lands, ownership over forest lands, size and structure of the growing stock, forest yield, regeneration and increase of forest area and other wooded lands, area with felling and the harvested wood volume, the phytosanitary status and wood and non-wood products harvested. In order to establish the statistical indicators for forestry and forest exploitation a general plan for collecting the information was developed based on statistical surveys, monitoring studies and administrative reports. These methods of collecting information are organized and planned so that they contain the entire reference population and the content of the indicators set which will be established. These components of the general plan for information collection refers to the statistical reference populations , the periods for data collecting, representativity level (county, national) as we as to the content (structure) of the reports. According to the content, the statistical forest indicators, harmonized with the ones in the statistical systems of the European Union and FAO, shows in the same time the specific cha-racteristics of the Romanian system for the sustainable development of the forest resource. Keywords: statistical indicators, forestry, forest exploitation, growing stock, forest yield