Deep Dive: Forest Europe

Forest Europe is an interactive database which provides a comprehensive, up-to-date description of the status and trends of forests and forest management in Europe.


https://www.youtube.com/user/FORESTEUROPE?feature=watch

It is based on 6 criteria and 45 indicators of sustainable forest management in Europe developed by Forest Europe and UNECE FAO, which are:

Criteria:

  • C1: Maintenance and appropriate enhancement of forest resources and their contribution to global carbon cy­cles;
  • C2: Maintenance of forest ecosystems’ health and vitality;
  • C3: Maintenance and encouragement of productive func­tions of forests (wood and non-wood);
  • C4: Maintenance, conservation and appropriate enhance­ment of biological diversity in forest ecosystems;
  • C5: Maintenance, conservation and appropriate en­hancement of protective functions in forest manage­ment (notably soil and water); and
  • C6: Maintenance of other socio-economic functions and conditions.

Indicators:

  • A set of 45 indicators (34 quantitative and 11 qualitative) have been developed to evaluate the programs and policies for sustainable forest management (see http://www.foresteurope.org/documentos/guidelines/VienaIndiBcgrnd.pdf for more details)

In addition to characteristics of European forests and forestry data in general, the user also has access to information on the balance of carbon in forest ecosystems, forest health condition, status of forest biodiversity, wood energy, production, including wood and non-wood products and services, social and economic aspects of the forestry sector. In line with the structure of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, the data are presented to illustrate trends of chosen variables for the years 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010. The interface enables online review and simple analysis, and allows for selective extraction of the requested data in different formats.

How to access Forest Europe: The database is available at: http://w3.unece.org/pxweb/. These data are presented alongside other statistical data from different parts of the UNECE work program. Additional information on the state of Europe's Forests 2011 including the main report, country reports on qualitative and quantitative indicators, reports on European Forest Types, data and definitions as well as maps and graphs is available at:

http://www.foresteurope.org/eng/State_of_Europes_Forests_Report_2011/Report/
http://www.unece.org/forests-welcome/areas-of-work/forestsforestresourceswelcome/forestsfroutputs/forestsfroutputssoef2011.htm

3 Evaluation One of the main goals of FOREST EUROPE strategy, as specified in the European Forests 2020 decision, is to achieve by 2020 that “the full value of forest ecosystem services across Europe will be estimated with a view to using common valuation approaches, and that values are increasingly reflected in relevant national policies and market-based instruments such as payments for ecosystem services” To fulfil this activity an Expert Group was established who worked from 2012 to 2014 with the aim to provide recommendations to policy makers on the pan- European approaches to valuation of forest ecosystem services and means to facilitate its implementation, and to present the range of different methods. The three sub working groups who worked mostly on-line focused on:

  • Identification of forest ecosystem services at the pan- European level
  • Toolbox with valuation of FES approaches to the pan- European region and
  • Means to facilitate implementation

A workshop was held in September 2014 in Belgrade, Serbia, where delegates from Albania, Finland, Italy, Norway, Republic of Serbia, Spain and United Kingdom shared their experience from a wide variety of projects on evaluation methods. Experiences developed at a regional level were also presented by representatives of the European Commission and the Joint Research Centre, the European Forest Institute, and the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).

The report, http://www.foresteurope.org/documentos/Report_Valuation_FES_ForestEurope.pdf, is aimed mainly at decision makers and stakeholders in the field of forest resource management and to assist them in the design and implementation of valuation of forest ecosystem services.

The FOREST EUROPE Liaison Unit Madrid and UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section encourage the international community to take advantage of this valuable resource, and to make suggestions for further improvement

For further information, please contact:
Mr. Roman Michalak
Forest Resources Officer
UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section
roman.michalak@unece.org
www.unece.org/forests
Source for the above content is from http://www.foresteurope.org


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