Assessing forest availability for wood supply in Europe

14 Pág.The quantification of forests available for wood supply (FAWS) is essential for decision-making with regard to the maintenance and enhancement of forest resources and their contribution to the global carbon cycle. The provision of harmonized forest statistics is necessary for the development of forest associated policies and to support decision-making. Based on the National Forest Inventory (NFI) data from 13 European countries, we quantify and compare the areas and aboveground dry biomass (AGB) of FAWS and forest not available for wood supply (FNAWS) according to national and reference definitions by determining the restrictions and associated thresholds considered at country level to classify forests as FAWS or FNAWS. FAWS represent between 75 and 95 % of forest area and AGB for most of the countries in this study. Economic restrictions are the main factor limiting the availability of forests for wood supply, accounting for 67 % of the total FNAWS area and 56 % of the total FNAWS AGB, followed by environmental restrictions. Profitability, slope and accessibility as economic restrictions, and protected areas as environmental restrictions are the factors most frequently considered to distinguish between FAWS and FNAWS. With respect to the area of FNAWS associated with each type of restriction, an overlap among the restrictions of 13.7 % was identified. For most countries, the differences in the FNAWS areas and AGB estimates between national and reference definitions ranged from 0 to 5 %. These results highlight the applicability and reliability of a FAWS reference definition for most of the European countries studied, thereby facilitating a consistent approach to assess forests available for supply for the purpose of international reporting.This research was supported by the Specific contract n. 18 “Use of National Forest Inventories data to estimate area and above ground biomass in European forests not available for wood supply” in the context of the Framework contract for the provision of forest data and services supporting the European Forest Data Centre 2012/ S 78-127532 of 21/04/2012 of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission; the EG-013-72 agreement of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) and the INIA belonging to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN); and the project No.APVV-15-0265 granted by the Slovak Research and Development Agency.Peer reviewe

Estimates of stem wood increments in forest resources: comparison of different approaches in forest inventory: consequences for international reporting: case study of European forests

International audienceAbstractKey messageQuality and reliability of forest resource assessments depend on the ability of national forest inventories (NFIs) to supply necessary and high-quality data. Over the last decades and especially since the 1990s, the NFIs in European countries have been rapidly developing. Possibilities for obtaining reliable and accurate data on annual increment from different inventory types were evaluated, and sample-based inventories have been found to be superior to standwise inventories in providing reliable data. Simplified methods may be employed when increment cannot be directly estimated from inventory data.ContextAn increasing intensity of forest resource use requires more accurate, detailed and reliable information, not only on forest area and growing stock but also on forest stand productivity, wood increment and its components.AimsThe main objectives were to assess the capacities of forest inventories, the methods used for estimation of gross increment and its components and their accuracy and to demonstrate an effective method for estimation of increment when direct inventory methods are not available.MethodsData about national forest inventory methods were obtained from 30 responses to a questionnaire, distributed amongst national correspondents of all European countries; reports of COST Actions E43 and FP 1001, databases of Temperate and Boreal Forest Resource Assessment (TBFRA) 2000 and State of Europe’s Forests (SoEF) 2011 were used as well. Analysis and comparison of results from different forest inventories were used for evaluation of data reliability. Relationships between growing stock and gross increment in European forests were also analysed, and corresponding models were proposed.ResultsSeventy-nine percent of European forest area is covered by national forest inventories (NFIs) based on sampling methods and the rest on stand-level inventory and other inventory methods. Data obtained by aggregating standwise data usually underestimate growing stock by 15–20 % and gross increment even more. Almost half of the European forest area (47 %) is monitored using permanent plots, measured twice or more, allowing the estimation of gross increment and its components to be made directly.ConclusionImplementation of NFIs based on sampling methods, especially with permanent plots, resulted in an improvement of data quality and in most cases an increase of growing stock and gross increment. The estimation of natural losses is the weakest link in today’s NFIs and in the current assessment of European forest resources. The proposed default values for gross increment and its components is an option to be used in countries not having NFI at all or those which have started it only recently

Assessing forest availability for wood supply in Europe

The quantification of forests available for wood supply (FAWS) is essential for decision-making with regard to the maintenance and enhancement of forest resources and their contribution to the global carbon cycle. The provision of harmonized forest statistics is necessary for the development of forest associated policies and to support decision-making. Based on the National Forest Inventory (NFI) data from 13 European countries, we quantify and compare the areas and aboveground dry biomass (AGB) of FAWS and forest not available for wood supply (FNAWS) according to national and reference definitions by determining the restrictions and associated thresholds considered at country level to classify forests as FAWS or FNAWS. FAWS represent between 75 and 95 % of forest area and AGB for most of the countries in this study. Economic restrictions are the main factor limiting the availability of forests for wood supply, accounting for 67 % of the total FNAWS area and 56 % of the total FNAWS AGB, followed by environmental restrictions. Profitability, slope and accessibility as economic restrictions, and protected areas as environmental restrictions are the factors most frequently considered to distinguish between FAWS and FNAWS. With respect to the area of FNAWS associated with each type of restriction, an overlap among the restrictions of 13.7 % was identified. For most countries, the differences in the FNAWS areas and AGB estimates between national and reference definitions ranged from 0 to 5 %. These results highlight the applicability and reliability of a FAWS reference definition for most of the European countries studied, thereby facilitating a consistent approach to assess forests available for supply for the purpose of international reporting

The distribution of single recombination events across the long arm of 21q by population.

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