4. Improvements on National Forestry Statistics Process

The Forestry Commission as the national public body responsible for forestry should direct and co-ordinate the development of a national database of forestry and wood products. The Forestry Commission under current legislation has a mandate to collect only forestry data but this should be broadened to include wood products.

The Forestry Commission should have the necessary legal powers to collect data on wood products production, consumption, imports and exports form individuals, companies and member association and/or organisations. The data would be submitted in form of a filled in questionnaire in order to standardise the collection and presentation format.

With the growth and popularity of the Internet it is proposed to build a Website dedicated to the collection and dissemination of forestry and wood products data in Zimbabwe. The Website should be managed by the Forestry Commission. One should also be able to submit the required wood products data on line.

The report on wood products should be in two forms, basic report and a detailed report. The basic wood products reports should be available on the Website. The Website should be updated regularly, at least once a year.

The Forestry Commission should at least once a year, disseminate a summary report to organisations and associations that have contributed by filling in questionnaires. The basic report should also be sent to local and international stakeholders like non-government organisations, relevant government bodies, relevant universities and colleges and international organisations (e.g. FAO) that are involved in forestry.

In order to recoup some cost in producing the annual statistics a detailed report (as opposed to the basic report mentioned earlier) should be available to the public at a nominal cost. The report can also be ordered on line through the Internet.

As mentioned earlier the data collected by the CSO is of little use and importance. It is recommended that the CSO should collect data by quantity and monetary value preferably in US$ of wood products imported and exported. The data should also classify wood products by product type e.g. hardwood lumber, softwood veneer, hardwood solid door etc.