Skógræktarritið - 15.05.2001, Page 204

harmonising the calculation pro-
cedures for the costs and rev-
enues is one of the most chal-
lenging problems in order to
make the results from different
countries comparable. Character-
istically, there are large differ-
ences between regions and coun-
tries in the procedures applied in
timber trade, in the productive
capacity of woodlands and in the
structure of forest ownership.
Before any decisions are made
on the parameters to be moni-
tored, or stratification of the type
of holding (by ownership type,
size, region, or so on) or the way
in which information is to be col-
lected, it is necessary to identify
different potential users of the
information, the type and quality
of information that they will
require, and potential sources of
information. By identifying these
potential users of the monitoring
information, it is easier to define
the necessary sampling and
organisational arrangements.
The second research problem
in monitoring the socio-econom-
ic situation of farm forestry
through accountancy networks, is
the problem of statistical validi-
ty. Because of the large number
of individual farm forest owners
and farm forest enterprises, it is
not possible in practise to collect
comprehensive information on
all the farm forest owners. The
parameter values for the whole
population must be defined by
collecting a limited amount of
empirical data that can be ana-
lysed and generalised.
The problem of statistical
validity includes the choice of
the sampling method, sampling
size and grounds for stratifica-
tion (e.g. size of the farm forest
enterprises, type of farm forest
owner, location, etc.). The theory
of sampling can be utilised to
find answers to these questions.
The first essential piece of
information in developing a sam-
ple is the information on the
population of farm forests. The
monitored population has to be
described by such features which
clearly allow the distinction of
the members of the population
from non-members. Information
on the population characteristics
can be found for example from:
the agricultural census, farm reg-
isters, registers documenting
ownership or from various other
statistics (Sekot 2000a).
For the developed sampling
frame, where the population of
interest is defined, different sam-
pling techniques can be applied.
They include the techniques of
random sampling, purposive
sampling, quota sampling, sys-
tematic sampling and cluster
sampling as well as combined
techniques. The selection of a
sampling technique largely
impacts on the costs of sam-
pling, but also on the statistical
accuracy, validity and reliability
(Sekot 2000a).
The third research problem in
the monitoring of the socio-eco-
nomics of farm forestry, is relat-
ed to the organisational arrange-
ments. For long term monitoring
systems, permanent organisa-
tional arrangements, including
tasks from planning and applica-
tion of the existing monitoring
systems and principles, up to
updating the systems and devel-
oping them further, are essential.
Running the network can be in
the responsibility of various
organisations, e.g. public research
institutes, universities, forest
authorities, forest owners associ-
ations or private companies pro-
viding bookkeeping services. The
network organiser can organise
the collection of data either
through questionnaires or
through field survey where farms
are visited and owners inter-
viewed (Sekot 2000b). The mailed
questionnaires are cheaper to use
for data collection, but the quality
of data is normally better if it was
collected through field surveys
and interviews. To have reliable
accountancy data, the forest own-
ers must have faith in the moni-
toring system and they need to be
assured that the information on
forestry income is not used for
taxation purposes (Sekot 2000b).
This is easierto explain though
field survey approach than with
mailed questionnaires.
Farm forestry accounting
After the organisational consider-
ations, sample design and re-
spective research work, monetary
and physical information on farm
forest inputs and outputs can be
collected. This data can be pro-
cessed with forestry accounting
where the principles are similar to
ordinary financial accounting,
with few exceptions. Cost ac-
counting and costing techniques
are most closely identified with
the production of goods and ser-
vices, but they are also necessary
functions in other areas of activity
such as bidding for jobs, making
cost-benefit analysis before pro-
jects etc. Cost accounting pro-
vides information about costs,
which the management accoun-
tant then uses to plan, control
and make decisions (Hakkarainen
andSekot 2000) (Table 1).
Like in any other firms, a farm
forestry enterprise's accounting
procedure should comprise a
profit and loss account (Table 2),
a balance sheet (Table 3), as well
as those parts of cost accounting
that have relative importance for
the owner (Hakkarainen and
Sekot 2000). In Table 2, the items
after the profit (loss) of the peri-
od (level 8) do not belong to
ordinary financial accounting
(Hyder et al. 1994).
Accounting of only the realised
revenues and costs is in principle
202
SKÓGRÆKTARRITIÐ 2001 l.tbl.