Environmental Accounting on Forest 2025

News: Recently, MoSPI released the 8th issue of “Environmental Accounting on Forest – 2025” during the 29th Conference of Central and State Statistical Organizations (CoCSSO) in Chandigarh.

About Environmental Accounting on Forest 2025

• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) adopted the UN System of Environmental Economic Accounts (SEEA) Framework in 2018 for compiling environmental economic accounts.
• This is the first publication focusing specifically on forest accounting, presenting comprehensive national and state-level forest accounts in accordance with the SEEA framework.
• It has been published in two volumes –
  • Volume I provides methodology and national-level data on various forest ecosystem accounts.
  • Volume II focuses on state and Union Territory (UT) level data, presenting decadal changes in forest assets, extent, condition, and services.
• Data Sources: India State of Forest Report (ISFR) and other sources such as Forestry Statistics 2021 (ICFRE), SEEA frameworks, NCAVES Report, National Accounts Statistics, MoSPI.
• Significance: It highlights the vital role of forests in providing essential services like carbon retention and timber production, with a focus on regeneration, conservation, and sustainable management at both national and state levels.

Key Findings from the Report

Physical Asset Account	Between 2010-11 and 2021-22, India’s forest cover grew by 17,444.61 sq. km (22.50%), covering 7.15 lakh sq. km (21.76% of India’s geographical area). Major contributors to forest cover increase are: Kerala: 4,137 sq. km, Karnataka: 3,122 sq. km and Tamil Nadu: 2,606 sq. km
Extent Account	Between 2013-2023, India’s forest extent saw a net increase of 3,356 sq. km due to reclassification and boundary adjustments. States with notable rise in Recorded Forest Area (RFA): Uttarakhand: 6.3% increase, Odisha: 1.97% increase and Jharkhand: 1.9% increase
Condition Account	Growing stock, which reflects usable wood volume in living trees, increased by 305.53 million cubic meters (7.32%) between 2013 and 2023. Leading contributors to growing stock: Madhya Pradesh: 136 million cubic meters, Chhattisgarh: 51 million cubic meters and Telangana: 28 million cubic meters Among UTs, Andaman & Nicobar Islands contributed 77 million cubic meters.
Services Account	Provisioning Services: The value of provisioning services (timber and non-timber) rose from ₹30.72 thousand crore in 2011-12 to ₹37.93 thousand crore in 2021-22 (0.16% of GDP in 2021-22). Top contributors by state: Maharashtra: ₹23.78 thousand crore, Gujarat: ₹14.15 thousand crore and Kerala: ₹8.55 thousand crore Regulating Services (Carbon Retention): The value of carbon retention services grew by 51.82%, from ₹409.1 thousand crore in 2015-16 to ₹620.97 thousand crore in 2021-22. This accounts for 2.63% of GDP at current prices in 2021-22. Leading contributors to carbon retention value: Arunachal Pradesh: ₹296 thousand crore, Uttarakhand: ₹156.6 thousand crore and Assam: ₹129.96 thousand crore