22 Nov 2023
Commission proposes comprehensive forest monitoring system
On 22 November, the European Commission proposed a Forest Monitoring Law that will plug existing gaps in the information on European forests and create a comprehensive forest knowledge base, to allow Member States, forest owners and forest managers to improve their response to growing pressures on forests and strengthen forest resilience. Currently, available information on the state of forests and the use of forest resources and services is scattered and incomplete, data on EU forests is often outdated and produced using diverging definitions, resulting in significant knowledge gaps. A comprehensive monitoring system will address those inconsistencies.
The monitoring framework aims at putting in place a comprehensive, high-quality monitoring system that ensures standardised or harmonised data and covers all forests and other wooded land. It will build on existing data sets, good practices of Member States and the technological advancement of remote sensing as well the EU capacity to provide these services. Specifically, the Forest Monitoring Law will create:
- A system for mapping and localisation of forest units
- A forest data collection framework
- A forest data sharing framework.
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