Forest assets and environmental benefits in management accounting

摘要

Management of forests takes place in the institutional framework of forest enterprises and requires a variety of information. The core instrument of information supply is the accounting system. It provides the basis for decisions and internal controlling, and it is needed for reporting to external stakeholders on economic and social aspects of the forestry operation. Forestry accounting also has major deficiencies; periodic changes in forest assets are insufficiently recorded, and other achievements,especially with respect to the environment, are not shown adequately. Many approaches have been proposed over time to consider changes in forest assets, but none of them has been accepted in practice. Whereas there are hardly any legal regulations concerning forest asset records in external accounting, it is indispensable for internal accounting to have correct records and examine if targets have been reached. With regard to the environmental benefits that cannot actually be assessed with a monetary system, so-called performance reports and sustainability reports that show primarily physical factors are being examined. On a higher level these performance reports are partially cornplemented by monetary factors. An overview of new developments and related topics with a focus on performance measurement and management control shall be presented and discussed in this paper.