National Survey on demand for recreation in French forests

National accounting deals more and more with economic and environmental information considered in an integrated general frame. It is particularly the case for natural resource accounting and, among other natural resources, for forests. However, the statistical system is not as developed on the environmental side as it is on the economic one. Information availability is thus a major constraint when such accounting processes are carried out. This limitation exists when physical variables need to be monitored and is still stronger when a monetary valuation is needed. For forest accounts, this difficulty has been encountered in almost all non-wood functions such as the production of non-wood goods, recreation (including hunting), biodiversity, ecosystem protection, carbon sequestration, water regulation. It even concerns a particular wood assortment: fuelwood. Among all forest functions, recreation is known to be increasingly important in our urban societies and its annual value is probably of the same size as the wood removals one. However, it is often estimated on the basis of local studies that are then extrapolated to the whole national territory and that can hardly be compared with data from other countries. For example in France, several studies have been done but they generally concern only the number of visits (except in Lorraine) and are very different one from the other (study area, period…). Finally, a better knowledge of recreational activities is absolutely necessary for integrated management and accounts