Piotr Szczypa

Applicability of book value to estimate property of Polish forest management units

Abstract At present, various solutions are proposed for the appraisal of forest land and stands. Recently an important problem concerning business information is connected with the valuation of assets of individual forest districts. In practice, numerous methods are used to estimate the property of enterprises. However, there are no universal methods to estimate the value of an enterprise. One of these practically applicable methods is the book value method (BVM). In view of the above, it was decided to analyse the applicability of this method to valuate the property of forest districts. Based on the conducted case study and the discussion of results, it was found that the original BV method may not be used to appraise the property of forest districts. The primary justification for rejection of this method in the valuation of forest district property results was from the lack of financial balance information on the value of forest land and stands. As a result, the value of a forest district calculated using the BVM is underestimated. A lesser but significant effect on the estimated value of forest districts is also observed for cash flows related with the Forest Fund. In the case of net contributors, the estimated value of forest districts is overestimated and that of net beneficiaries is underestimated.