Beschreibung:
Reliable and timely information on the state of forest resources, including forest area and forest area change, growing stock, biodiversity, wood and non-wood products, the use of forests for recreation and for environment services and the contribution of forests to the national economy, is essential for policy formulation and development, as well as for program planning (FAO 2005, Sayer et al. 1997). The need for reliable data presents a great challenge, as traditional methods of gathering forestry statistics have often failed to provide accurate information. For example, in developing countries inventories provide reliable data for only 14% of the forest area covered by the inventories (Persson and Janze 1995). In the past, forestry statistics have typically concentrated on forest products and on the economic value of forests (Wardle 1995). China's forestry statistics face the same challenge. Its statistical system was based on the Soviet model in the 1950s, which was developed to serve a centrally planned economy. China benefited little from the cumulative experiences of other countries up to the early 1980s because of its lengthy isolation. Since its reforms and the adoption of an open-door policy, China has made efforts to gather new types of forestry information and to improve its system of collecting forestry statistics, including the development of a national forest inventory scheme, in a bid to promote standardised and compatible collection and reporting of forest information ...