Wood volume and woody biomass levels are important indicators of the forests’ potential to provide wood and to sequester carbon: the role of forests as major terrestrial sinks and sources of carbon dioxide has received significant additional attention since the adoption of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
Volume and biomass statistics were among the most important parameters for FRA 2000. Statistics were compiled country by country following standard terms and definitions.
Information to support estimates was not always available for all the countries, and assumptions and extrapolations were necessary in many cases.
In attempt to clarify the resulting information and to improve its reliability and accuracy, FRA carried out a systematic review of the calculations underlying the volume and biomass figures (for developing countries), as presented in table 7 Annex 3 of the FAO Forestry Paper 140, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, Main Report. Industrialized countries were considered separately and estimates for these counties were taken from the UNECE 2000 Main report for Europe, CIS, North America, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
This working paper describes the main steps of the review process, from the data collection and the descriptions of the methodology used, to the presentation and explanations of the results.
Conclusions and recommendations are also included in the last section of the working paper.
Finally, detailed appendices provide comprehensive tables and an example of country brief lay out where results are presented and explained country by country.
