Forest Product Measurement Systems in the World—Measurement of Wood and Fuelwood Products Measurement Systems around the World a Social, Economic, Environmental and Cultural Approach

Abstract

The measurement of forest products has an impact on the economic-social and environmental areas of a region, that is, on the economic and sustainable development of a country. Measurement systems at the global level have not been homogenized because there are technical deficiencies in the measurement process allowing the plundering of forest resources and causing the impoverishment of workers, due to unfair piecework, leaving the inhabitants with negative externalities. The measurement of forest products is complex due to the factors involved in quantifying the volume of a piece. There are countless methods, many very local. In the United States and Canada there are more than 95 rules or formulas in current use out of about 185 in existence. There are systems such as the JAS (Japanese Agricultural Standard) Rule or formula, which is currently being adopted in Japan, Chile, East Asia, and Oceania. Artificial Intelligence is also used for measurement. The company Timbeter™ has been venturing into almost all countries using various formulas and calculating the volume with the use of a Tablet or a Smartphone, taking a photo of the wood to be cubed. This method is too expensive. Only countries with a lot of forests are acquiring it. Artificial Intelligence technology will displace most of the methods currently used, without erroneous factors in the payment of piecework. Although traditionalism in some regions of the world considers it difficult to train the workforce. This article presents the most commonly used methods, rules and formulas today, the methods of cubic volume measurement or table foot prediction, and finally the measurement of firewood that has its own cubing methods. The foregoing takes the economic and social aspects of the inhabitants of the forests as a context. The conditions for empirical study are not yet present. The objective of this study is to show the methods and formulas of measurement, clarifying that it does not intend to compare with the Japanese Agriculture System JAS which is the most used in the world, nor with the Timbeter method, which is venturing into the world market, it is only a historical tour of the ways of measuring the volume of forest products.