Recital 16

(16)To measure the evolution of greenhouse gas emission savings and carbon stock in forest ecosystems, it is appropriate that forest owners should perform a climate benefit analysis. In order to reflect proportionality and minimise administrative burden for small-scale forest owners in particular, forest holdings below 13 hectares should not be required to perform a climate benefit analysis. In order to reduce administrative costs further, smaller forest owners should be allowed to perform a group assessment with other holdings to certify their calculations, performed every 10 years. Adequate free-of charge tools, such as tools provided by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), based on data of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ⁴ , are available to estimate the magnitude of costs and minimise costs and burdens for small-scale foresters. The tool can notably be adapted to different levels of analysis, such as specific values and detailed calculation for big holdings, default values and simplified calculation for smaller owners.