State Indicators

Area covered by tropical and temperate forests

A country’s stock of forest resources depends largely on the area currently covered by its tropical and temperate forests. Other factors, such as tree density per unit area and their conservation state, also determine the volume of timber and non-timber forest resources in stock (FAO, 2006). In this sense, the Area covered by tropical and temperate forests denotes the area currently covered by the country’s forest stocks. This indicator is also included in other indicators sets such as that of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 2008), the UK Government's Indicators of Sustainable Development (DEFRA, 2004), Greece’s Report on Sustainable Development Indicators (NCESD, 2003), Denmark's National Strategy for Sustainable Development (Danish Government, 2003), the UN Indicators of Sustainable Development (UN, 2007) and the Millennium Development Goals in Mexico (ONU, Gobierno de la República, 2006).

Timber stocks in tropical and temperate forests

Timber stocks basically refer to the volume of timber that a region or country holds as live trees in its tropical and temperate forests. Timber stocks are different in temperate than in tropical forests, with tropical forests usually having larger stocks per unit area (FAO, 2006; Semarnat, 2009). In addition to forest type, the conservation state of forests also affects the size of timber stocks; fragmented forests hold comparatively lower timber stocks than primary temperate or tropical forests. The indicator Timber stocks in tropical and temperate forests describes the volume of national forest resources. Several efforts to estimate Mexico’s timber stocks have been carried out; the most recent one is being conducted under the 2004-2009 National Forest and Soil Inventory, from which preliminary results are available (Conafor, Inifap, INE and INEGI, 2006).