Green accounting for forest and green policies in China — A pilot national assessment

Abstract

Green accounting is a debated issue. This pilot study for the first time estimates the values of China's forest resources and calculates its forest green GDP. It relies primarily on existing data on previously published information by the government in China. Our estimates indicate that the total stock value of forestlands and standing timber in 1999 was 4564.43 billion Yuan (RMB) in China, in 2003 was 5273.05 billion Yuan, and the sum of flow values of forest resources from 1999 to 2003 was 11,072.36 billion Yuan annually. In the value of forest ecological services, the value of water conservation was largest, and the value of air pollution and dust purifying was least. The nation's eaGDP (environmentally adjusted GDP) for forest in 1999 was 9281.55 billion Yuan, Larger than GDP of 8967.71 billion Yuan, the eaNDP (environmentally adjusted NDP) for forest was 9280.73 billion Yuan, was about 1.05 times that of the NDP. In 2003 both of the eaGDP and eaNDP for forest calculated by the production method at the marketing price exceeded the conventional GDP and NDP, but the annual average growth rate of eaNDP for forest was 10.68%, less than the annual average growth rate of NDP 11.27% during the accounting period, which mostly caused by the increased depreciation value of the planted forest, and the loss of forest resource assets and degradation of forest environment assets since the greater economic development in recent years in China. We propose that forest compensation should be enhanced, and the legal protection of forests should be strengthened, as well as the economic activities which cause deterioration in forest service functions should be avoided or at least minimized.