Classification of Forest Products

"This classification is designed to cover the wood and wood-based products for which FAO and ECE collect statistics on a regular basis. Included is wood taken from forests or from trees outside the forest, bark and cork; charcoal; wood and wood-based materials resulting from the first processing of the wood available from forest operations (including sawnwood, railway sleepers, veneer sheets, wood pulp and wood residues); and materials resulting from further processing of some of these materials (e.g. wood-base panels, paper and paperboard); waste paper and recoverable wood products.

Manufactured articles of wood and paper (as opposed to materials) are excluded as outside the regular data collection programmes of FAO and ECE. Moreover, this classification does not attempt to cover non-wood forest products such as small ornamental trees cut for special purposes; nuts, berries, seeds, roots, or other parts of plants gathered in forest areas; gums, balsams, lacs, etc.; wood derivatives such as turpentine, tall oil, sulphite dye and other chemicals. Forestry operations and services such as reforestation, forest protection (including fire protection and fire fighting) are also excluded, along with other forest-based activities such as protection and management of watersheds, of forest wildlife and of forest recreational areas.

Criteria of classification: Considerations incorporated in the formulation of subdivisions in the classification include: a) chief component material; b) stage of manufacture; c) technology applied in production; d) purpose or intended use.

So far as possible, each group is confined to only one stage of manufacture i.e.: a) crude materials; b) products of first processing; c) products of further processing.

An important consideration was the harmonization with the major international classifications."