Documentation of statistics silvicultural and forest improvement work

Data description

The statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work present the annual workload of these activities, as well as unit and total costs. Regarding felling, the statistics present felling areas by felling method. 

Classification system

Silvicultural and forest improvement work is presented by work type and owner group. The regional division is either based on the regions of Finland or wood price areas.

Felling areas are published by felling method, forest owner group and region. 

Sector coverage

The statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work include the silvicultural and forest improvement work carried out by companies that provide forest services. Work carried out in forests owned by the state and forest industry companies is also included in the statistics. The statistics do not include work carried out independently by non-industrial private forest owners in their own forests.

Statistical concepts and definitions

The statistics are compiled by work type. Silvicultural types of work include work related to the clearing of felling areas, soil preparation, artificial regeneration, pre-commercial thinning, the improvement of young stands, and repelling root-rot disease. Forest improvement work includes fertilisation, remedial ditching, and the construction and basic improvement of forest roads. In addition, the planning of remedial ditching and the construction and basic improvement of forest roads is included in the total costs of forest improvement work.

Currently, data about silvicultural and forest improvement work by work type are published using two regional divisions to ensure data protection:

1) Data per price range (8 price ranges) by forest owner group (private and others)

2) Data per region without any forest owner grouping

The following price areas and regions are used in the statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work:

1. Southern Finland: Uusimaa, Southwest Finland, Satakunta, Kanta-Häme, Päijät-Häme
2. Central Finland: Pirkanmaa, Central Finland
3. Kymi-Savo: Kymenlaakso, South Karelia, South Savo
4. Savo-Karelia: North Karelia, North Savo
5. Southern Ostrobothnia: Ostrobothnia, Southern Ostrobothnia, Central Ostrobothnia
6. Kainuu-Ostrobothnia: Kainuu, Northern Ostrobothnia
7. Lapland: Lapland
8. Åland: Åland

Non-industrial private forest owners include private forest owners, joint forests, municipalities, parishes, foundations and other associations. The group “other” consists of the state and forests within the scope of influence of forest industry companies.

Data published before 2008 presented forests owned by the state and forest industry companies separately, but they have since been combined for data protection reasons. Data protection prevents data per forest owner group from being presented by region.

Since 2015, the classification and definitions of the types of work for silvicultural and forest improvement work have been described in detail in the attachment (only available in Finnish and Swedish) available on the page concerning data collection for the statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work. 

The classification and definitions of the types of work valid until 2014 are presented in the attachment (only available in Finnish).

Felling areas are presented by felling method: 1) first thinning, other thinning and the removal of hold-overs and shelterwood classified as intermediate felling; and 2) clear cutting, natural regeneration and other regeneration felling aimed at forest regeneration. In addition, the classification includes the group “other felling”.

Statistical unit

Data about silvicultural and forest improvement work are collected from 1) companies and organisations that provide forest services for forest owners; 2) companies established to tend forests owned by forest industry companies; and 3) the state. With regard to work carried out independently by non-industrial private forest owners in their own forests, the data that have been saved in the data systems of forest management associations are obtained (supervised work, i.e. work for which the forest management association has submitted a notification for forestry support provided by the state, etc.). Data collected in conjunction with the public administrative work carried out by the Finnish Forest Centre are used in the verification of data.

Data about felling areas comprise data about planned felling collected from notifications of forest use. Forest owners have a statutory obligation to report their felling plans in advance to the Finnish Forest Centre. 

Statistical population

The statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work describe the amount of silvicultural and forest improvement work carried out by forest management associations, other forest service companies, forest industry companies and the state, as well as associated costs. The population of the statistics consists of the aforementioned parties that carry out silvicultural and forest improvement work.

The statistics on felling areas represent the plans of forest owners to carry out felling in their forests. By law, forest owners must report their felling plans in advance to the Finnish Forest Centre. This means that the statistics include total data about forest owners’ felling plans.

The data included in the statistics cover the whole of Finland. The regional division is based on 1) the regions of Finland or wood price areas regarding silvicultural and forest improvement work; 2) the regions of Finland regarding felling areas; and 3) the division between Southern and Northern Finland (Northern Ostrobothnia, Kainuu and Lapland) regarding data about forest tree seeds and seedlings.

Unit of measure 

Regarding silvicultural and forest improvement work, types of work are presented in hectares except for remedial ditching and the construction and basic improvement of forest roads that are presented in kilometres. Unit costs are presented in euros per unit performed (EUR per hectare or EUR per kilometre). Total costs are indicated in thousands of euros.

Felling areas are presented in hectares. 

Reference period

Calendar year
 

Reference area

In silvicultural and forest improvement work, types of work affect the availability of data. For some types of work, data are available from the 1950s, while some types of work have not been recorded until the 2000s.

Data about felling areas are available from 1996.

Frequency of disseminations

Annually

Time coverage

These are not index statistics.

The statistics are compiled based on the Act on the Natural Resources Institute Finland (561/2014), the Act on Food and Natural Resource Statistics (562/2014), the Customs Act (1466/94), and the Statistics Act (280/2004).

More information: Statistics legislation

Confidentiality is a base principle of statistics and assures the confidential processing of data provided by informants, and the Natural Resources Institute Finland has undertaken to follow this principle.

More information: Privacy policy – Statistics

The disseminations of the Natural Resources Institute Finland are published online on weekdays at 9:00. Data is public after it has been published on the website.

Release calendar

Publication dates are confirmed in autumn together with the action plans. The release calendar of the following year is published for users in the end of the year. The release calendar contains data on the dates of future publications. The publication dates are published in the calendar at first with an accuracy of one week, and two months prior to the publication date with an accuracy of a day. The calendar also contains direct links to already published statistical publication.

Release calendar access

Statistical releases calendar | Natural Resources Institute Finland

Quality assurance

In compiling statistics, Luke complies with the Code of Practice (CoP) for European statistics and the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) based on it. The CoP concerns the independence and liability obligation of the statistical authorities and the quality of processes and published information. Its principles are compatible with and supplement the principles of official statistics approved by the UK Statistical Commission. In addition, the quality criteria set for the Official Statistics of Finland are compatible with the CoP. The principles are also compatible with the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

Quality assessment

The data collected for the statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work are compared by supplier and work type with corresponding data collected a year earlier, provided that comparative data are available. Data about the amount of work, costs and unit costs are collected regarding silvicultural work, and any errors can be identified by examining their compatibility. During the calculation phase, distributions are examined to detect any untypical findings. The resulting statistics are compared with previous statistics, and if the results appear illogical, the cause will be investigated.

Data about felling areas are based on high-quality information about felling plans obtained from statutory notifications.

Users of the statistics are requested to provide feedback during meetings concerning changes in the statistics and in conjunction with written requests for comments. Feedback is also received directly. Feedback from users is monitored and taken into account when developing the statistics.

User needs

The statistical data are used in administration and research, as well as by forest sector companies and interest groups, as well as advisory service providers.

User satisfaction

Feedback is collected from the users of the statistics, especially when revising the statistics. Feedback is also received directly. In addition, we investigated the wishes of users for developing the statistics in the autumn of 2021 and beginning of 2022, when updating the work programme for the Natural Resources Institute Finland. We follow the received feedback and take it into consideration in developing the statistics.

Overall accuracy and reliability

The statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work are compiled based on data collected from companies that provide forest services through a questionnaire. The statistics do not include any work carried out independently by forest owners in their own forests, as a result of which the total workload and total costs of certain types of work are underestimates. The amount of work carried out independently is unknown, but such work mostly consists of types of work that can easily be carried out by hand, including early and later pre-commercial thinning.

In some of the collected data, the data provider has not defined the geographic area in which the silvicultural work was carried out. Such data are divided into regions based on the data provider’s operating area using municipal information about the forest land area in wood production.

Not all regional data about certain types of work can be published due to insufficient findings.

The tree species-specific planting volumes reported by respondents do not always add up to the total planting volume calculated manually and mechanically. The tree species-specific planting volumes are matched to correspond to the total planting volume calculated manually and mechanically.

The statistics on felling areas are based on the felling plans reported by forest owners to the Finnish Forest Centre as a statutory obligation. While submitting a notification does not require felling to be carried out, felling plans correspond fairly well to actual felling.

Sampling error

The statistics include data about work carried out by the largest forest service companies and forest management associations. Data about other forest service companies are collected through sampling based on the total number of the notifications required for the support paid by the state for silvicultural and forest improvement work carried out by forest service companies (Kemera support, entitled Metka from the beginning of 2024). 

The quality of sampling depends on how accurately the company-specific number of notifications submitted for support for silvicultural and forest improvement work represents the scope of forest service companies’ operations. Forest service companies carry out work in forests of forest owners who may authorise forest service companies to submit notifications on their behalf.

In addition to those forest service companies that provide silvicultural work, the population for forest improvement work includes companies engaged in soil preparation. Such companies are more difficult to identify for the population than other companies. However, forest improvement work is usually carried out by applying for support provided by the state for such work.

Non-sampling error

Coverage error

The data do not include silvicultural work carried out independently by non-industrial private forest owners, as data about such work cannot be collected from forest machine companies.

Measurement error

The data come from data providers’ forest systems.

Non-response error

Data about the largest forest service companies and forest management associations are obtained from nearly all operators. The rate of the non-response error is fairly high in the responses of other forest service companies. This group’s data are expanded to cover the entire stratum. However, the group does not account for any significant part of all silvicultural work.

Timeliness

The data are collected during the first half of the year following the statistical year, and the statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work are published on the home page of the statistics in late summer or early autumn.

Comparability - geographical

Data about silvicultural and forest improvement work have been published by region since 2016 and by wood price area since 2015. Before this, the data were divided between the regions of forest centres and forest boards. Part of the regions in Northern and Eastern Finland have remained relatively unchanged in different regional divisions.

Currently, felling areas are based purely on forest use notifications. In the current series starting from 2009, data are presented by region. In the previous series between 1996 and 2014, data were presented by forest centre.

Comparability - over time

When examining the time series of silvicultural and forest improvement work, it should be noted that there have been changes in data collection from time to time. Since 2002, the majority of data about workloads and costs in non-industrial private forests have been provided by forest management associations, while the data were obtained from the data systems of forest centres in the 1990s. Since 2015, the dataset has also included small and medium-sized forest service companies.

The attachment of work type definitions (2015–) describes the content and classification of the types of work that have been used from 2015.

The attachment of work type definitions (2014–) describes the content and classification of the types of work that were used between 2001 and 2014. As the types of work represent the working methods used during each period, their content can have varied from one period to the next. The types of work and classifications have especially changed in large types of work, including soil preparation and pre-commercial thinning. The classification of tree species used in artificial regeneration varies in the statistics: birch has been included in other tree species in some years, but not every year.

In 2000 and 2001, data about the unit costs of silvicultural and forest improvement work carried out in non-industrial private forests were only obtained regarding forest ditching and the construction and basic improvement of forest roads by forest centres. During these years, the unit and total costs of other types of work related to non-industrial private forests were estimated by converting the unit costs of the types of work carried out in non-industrial private forests in 1999 in accordance with the development of costs incurred by the state and forest industry companies.

In 2002, the content of cost data changed regarding data provided by private forest owners and forest industry companies. The wages of planners and supervisors, including social security contributions, and costs arising from protective equipment, worksite transport, weather, training, sick leave and accrued days off were introduced as new cost items.

The state underwent the same changes in 2006. This means that the state’s unit costs differed from those of non-industrial private forests and forest industry companies in the statistics for 2002–2005 (i.e. there were fewer cost items).

In the statistics for 2002–2005, the state’s total costs were made comparable to other owner groups by increasing the cost data obtained by work type using a varying percentage.

The Finnish Forest Centre has operated nationally since 2013, and its regions correspond to the 13 forest centres that have operated independently since 1998. In 1996–1997, there were 14 forest centres. In the time series, data about the Central Ostrobothnia forest centre in 1996–1997 have been divided between the forest centres of Southern Ostrobothnia and Northern Ostrobothnia using ratios based on municipal areas. Until 1995, there were 19 forest boards.

Currently, data about felling areas are only based on forest use notifications, with the time series prepared following this principle starting from 2009. The older time series covering 1996–2014 is based on data collected from companies and forest use notifications. The time series based on two different datasets differ slightly from one another.

Coherence - cross domain

The Finnish Forest Centre publishes statistics on state subsidies granted for silvicultural and forest improvement work carried out by private landowners and the amount of work carried out based on the subsidies (Kemera support, entitled Metka from the beginning of 2024). Realised workloads are reported by submitting workload notifications to the Finnish Forest Centre. 

As not all work carried out in forests is state-subsidised, the subsidised workloads published by the Finnish Forest Centre do not equal the workloads published in the statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work.

Coherence – internal

The data included in the statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work are harmonised from 2015. The data preceding this year are fairly harmonised with the current statistics, even though the work type classification used is partly different. Until 2014, the statistics included an estimate of the work carried out independently forest owners in their own forests. This work is not included in the most recent statistical figures.

The regional data about felling areas included in the statistics are data based on forest use notifications and produced by the Finnish Forest Centre using felling plans. As an exception, the data presented by forest centre are based on data collected from companies and forest use notifications. As a result, they differ slightly from the regional series.

The Finnish Forest Centre’s data about felling plans overlap in part because forest owners and felling service providers can submit forest use notifications for a single area, for example. The Finnish Forest Centre has aimed to address such overlaps from 2015. This should be taken into consideration when comparing data before this year to newer data.

Source data

The statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work are based on Luke’s data collection targeted at companies that provide forest services, forest industry companies and the state. The questionnaire for the statistics requests data about realised workloads, the unit costs of work, and total costs.

Data about felling areas are based on data collected by the Finnish Forest Centre from forest use notifications.

Frequency of data collection

Annually

Data collection

Data for the statistics on silvicultural and forest improvement work are provided by companies that provide services for forest owners or manage their own forest assets and the state. Data providers include forest management associations, forest industry companies, companies that own and manage forest assets, and other companies that provide forest services. Data about silvicultural and forest improvement work are requested from all large operators in the sector and forest management associations. Sampling is used to collect data about other companies that provide forest services based on forestry subsidy applications submitted to the Finnish Forest Centre (Kemera support, entitled Metka from 2024). Other companies that provide forest services can differ significantly from one another, ranging from single-person logging companies, soil improvement companies to medium-sized forest industry companies. Work is always reported by the company that invoices it from the forest owner. If work is carried out for another company through subcontracting, it will not be reported in the statistics. Data are collected using an electronic questionnaire. 

The workloads of silvicultural and forest improvement work are calculated by region from the data collected. For remedial ditching and the construction and basic improvement of forest roads, the entire workload accumulated in projects completed during the statistical year are presented.

Data about the costs of forest service companies are based on the costs invoiced from forest owners, excluding VAT.

If a company has carried out work in its own forests, cost data are based on a cost calculation that includes the wages of employees, planners and supervisors, including the statutory social security contributions, work-related increments and supplies (seedlings, fertilisers, plant protection products, fuel, etc.), as well as machinery and equipment costs, attributable to each work type during the year under review. In addition, work type-related costs arising from protective equipment, worksite transport, weather, training, sick leave and accrued days off (national income policy agreements of 1984 and 1986) are included.

All costs are presented exclusive of VAT.

The unit costs of different types of work are calculated by work type as average unit costs reported in the questionnaire weighted with workloads.

Derogating from other types of work, the planning costs of remedial ditching and forest roads are not included in the unit costs of different types of work. For remedial ditching and the construction and basic improvement of forest roads, the average unit costs of projects completed during the year under review accumulated throughout the duration of the projects are published.

Planting costs do not include soil preparation costs. Mechanical planting is usually carried out in conjunction with soil preparation, as a result of which the costs of mechanical planting include a planting increment, which is paid for planting carried out in conjunction with soil preparation. The price of planted seeds is included in other costs.

The unit costs of planting do not include soil preparation costs. The price of planted seedlings is included in the costs.

Total costs include the same cost items as unit costs. The total costs of remedial ditching and the construction and basic improvement of forest roads include costs accumulated during the year under review, even though their unit cost data concern the unit costs of projects completed during the year under review accumulated throughout the duration of the projects. The planning costs of remedial ditching and forest road projects are presented separately and are not included in work type-specific total costs.

Data about forest felling areas by felling method are obtained from the Finnish Forest Centre, which collects them from statutory forest use notifications.

Data validation

The data collected are validated by comparing company-specific data with the data provided by the company in the previous year. For some types of work, unit costs can be calculated based on the reported total costs and workloads which enables the data to be compared to the average costs of types of work.

The validation process has partly been automated using SAS software.

Data compilation

SAS software is also used to process and calculate the data included in the statistics. 

Any incomplete data are supplemented based on the reported data and the previous year’s average unit costs. 

The sample size of the statistics are divided into strata that are given a weighted factor when calculating the statistics. The factors are based on the response rate of each stratum during the data collection phase.