Facts about the survey Costs in large scale forestry
The Swedish Forest Agency has published statistics on the costs of felling, forest management and forest roads since the 1950s. Statistics on the cost of felling in large-scale forestry have been published since 1981
The survey is included in Sweden's official statistics and has product number JO0307.
The cost statistics are used by the Swedish Forest Agency for many types of economic calculations of forestry. Processed data are used in Statistics Sweden's (SCB) quarterly and annual calculation of national accounts. The statistics are also used in international reporting.
Included in the statistics
The statistics cover large-scale forestry's costs for various forestry activities on own forest land. Felling also includes felling on other's forest land and felling in damaged forest. Statistics on the following activities are published: regeneration felling, thinning, clear-cutting, soil preparation, planting, sowing, auxiliary planting, clearing, fertilisation and liming, as well as the cost of forest roads. The geographical division is northern and southern Sweden and the whole country.
Definitions and explanations
Here you can see how we define concepts and variables that appear in the statistical report. The questionnaire on which the results are based contains additional variables. We present all variables under "How we do the statistics" below.
Large-scale forestry
Ownership of more than 16 000 hectares or annual harvesting of more than 50 000 cubic metres of solid mass under bark (m3f ub).
Logging
Logging includes regeneration felling and thinning, as well as hauling out (skidding) timber to the forest road. Costs for clear-cut forestry are also measured in the survey.
Regeneration felling refers to felling with the aim of creating new forest through forest cultivation or natural regeneration.
Thinning refers to stand-conserving thinning of forest with the utilisation of timber.
In the survey, we divide harvesting into felling, transport to logging trucks and distributed overhead costs. Distributed overheads are usually items common to several harvesting areas, such as moving machinery.
In the survey, harvesting costs are divided into own and other forest land.
Non-clearcut forestry includes forests that are managed so that the land is always covered with trees without creating any large clearcut areas.
The declarant may also declare the cost of felling on land damaged by fire, storm, insect or fungal attack.
Silviculture
Silviculture refers to measures on own forest land. The following forest management measures are included in the survey:
- Cleaning refers to areas that have been treated in connection with regeneration felling.
- Soil scarification refers to separately treated areas before planting or (self-)sowing. Land preparation in direct connection with planting is included in that measure.
- Seeding, planting and beeting refer to both the first action and repetition on contiguous areas after damage. Both the cost of the seedlings or seeds and the planting or sowing itself are included.
- Pre-commercial thinning includes the cost of thinning in young forests.
- Fertilisation and liming refer to measures carried out on forest land and peatland to increase forest production or improve soil condition. It refers to the total cost of fertilisers and their application.
- Prescribed clear-cut burning refers to burning that takes place after felling.
Regions
We report the results according to the division of Sweden into counties and parts of the country. Northern Sweden refers to Northern and Southern Norrland. Southern Sweden refers to Svealand and Götaland.
How we produce the statistics
The survey is jointly conducted by Skogforsk and the Swedish Forest Agency. Every year, Skogforsk collects data from the organisations through a questionnaire. Participation in the survey is voluntary.
The data is collected at the regional level, which means that companies operating in several parts of the country may submit several questionnaires. We report the results for northern and southern Sweden as any further division into more detailed regions of the country entails a risk of disclosure.
The survey is a total survey of the approximately 80 largest forest owners and timber purchasing companies. These cover a total of around 11 million hectares of productive forest land in Sweden. This corresponds to approximately 91 per cent of all productive forest land owned by other than individual landowners.
As we report most of the data, except for forest land area and area for forest management measures, per harvested volume, per hectare or per metre, we do not use grossing-up factors to compensate for non-response or similar.
For the latest survey, 41 responses were not received, which is marginally higher than last year. In terms of area, these non-received responses are of relatively little significance, as the responses received represent just over 91 per cent of the area surveyed. We estimate that the volume covered by the survey responses is around two thirds of the net harvested volume in Sweden.
There is also a partial non-response, which has led to great uncertainty and a risk of disclosure of data from individual companies, and several variables have therefore been omitted. This applies, for example, to new and protective ditching, ditch maintenance, nature conservation, other forestry work, joint costs and management. This means that we publish statistics on forest roads only for the whole country. The same applies to slash-and-burn, undergrowth clearance and difficult felling in damaged forests.
Skogforsk registers the data manually and performs reasonableness checks. The Swedish Forest Agency calculates average costs.
Reliability and coverage
Reliability is relatively good. However, the different accounting systems used by the companies surveyed make it difficult to obtain fully comparable data, as the total cost mass (especially indirect costs) is allocated differently to the various cost centres. As the same data have been collected over a long period of time, this does not affect the long-term trends.
The survey has several sources of uncertainty. There is no uniform definition of large-scale forestry; where the boundary is set determines the size of the sample. In this statistical product, the threshold is set at an ownership of more than 16 000 hectares or an annual harvest of more than 50 000 cubic metres. The limits are set to reach a sufficiently large number of respondents to be able to publish without problems with confidential estimates and a trade-off with efficiency.
All estimates are weighted by area (hectares) or volume (m³f ub). This means that cost data from respondents who have large harvests or carry out measures on a large area also have greater weight in the reported estimates. It also means that the estimates should be representative of a larger part of the forestry sector than the one surveyed. Non-response from respondents with a low weight (volume or area) therefore has little impact on the estimates.
The survey frame is created partly from the property tax register for the area limit of 16 000 hectares and partly from harvesting volumes from Biometria for the limit of 50 000 cubic metres. The quality and coverage of these two data sources are therefore important in the creation of the population in this survey. Since the sample is small, it can easily be studied by the Swedish Forest Agency and Skogforsk.
Good to know
The Swedish Forest Agency reports the results annually in digital form here on the web, both on the product page and in the statistical database. We also draw attention to new statistics with a statistical news item on the website and an e-mail newsletter to subscribers.
The statistics are comparable from 1981 onwards for harvesting costs and from 1996 onwards for silvicultural costs. Older data can be found in the previous Forestry Statistics Yearbook, which can be found under historical statistics here on the website.
Data provided are protected. In the authorities' special activities for the production of statistics, confidentiality applies in accordance with Chapter 24. 8 § offentlighets- och sekretesslagen (2009:400).
Other statistics
In Sweden there is no comparable survey on costs in forestry. However, the Swedish Forest Agency also has a survey on measures in large-scale forestry. Comparability with other countries is limited because there is no standardised method for this type of survey.