The book presents the current state and good practices of national forest inventories in monitoring wood resources and demonstrates pathways for harmonisation and improved common reporting. Beyond a general overview over availability and use of wood resources in different countries, it provides a unique collection of original contributions from national forest inventory experts with in-depth descriptions of current NFI methods in assessing wood availability and wood use in European countries, and selected countries from America and Asia.The main topics are national definitions and improvements in common reporting of forests available for wood supply, stem quality and assortments, estimation of change including growth and drain, and tree resources outside forest land. The book is a must-have for everyone who is contributing to national forest inventories either methodologically or operatively, for people who want or need to understand national forest inventory provided data and information on the availability of wood resources. By providing profound knowledge it is a valuable basis for scientists involved in scenario modelling and analysing effects of climate change, as well as individuals in private organisations and public administrations promoting the sustainable use of natural resources and the potential of green economy.
About the Author: Claude VidalClaude VIDAL was Director of the French National Forest Inventory (NFI) from 2002 to 2014. As a founding member of the European National Forest Inventory Network (ENFIN) from its creation in 2003 onwards, he has worked from the beginning to enhance comparability of NFI data and to help countries to improve or establish up to date NFI methodologies. In COST Action E43: "Harmonisation of National Forest Inventories in Europe: Techniques for Common Reporting", from 2004 to 2008, he chaired one working group dealing with the harmonisation of definitions and from 2010 to 2014 also chaired another working group on the same subject within the COST Action "Usewood" focusing on the question of comparable data in terms of availability of wood in Europe on a sustainable basis. He was also the focal point of two Framework Contracts between ENFIN and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission helping the Commission to build a forest European database with comparable NFI data. From 2014 to 2016 he worked at the JRC to make proposals on the building of a European Forestry Bureau as foreseen in the European Forest Strategy document from 2013.
Iciar AlberdIciar Alberdi is researcher in forest monitoring in the Silviculture and Forest Management Department of the INIA-CIFOR in Madrid. She is a Forestry Engineer with a PhD from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). She has twelve years of experience coordinating the biodiversity survey of the Spanish National Forest Inventory and developing the methodology. Member of the ENFIN group (European National Forest Inventories Network) and national contact point of the Spanish National Forest Inventory, she is involved in several projects on the harmonization of national forest inventories.
Laura HernándezLaura Hernández has a postdoc position in the Silviculture and Forest Management Department of the INIA-CIFOR in Madrid. She is a Forestry Engineer with a PhD in Forest ecology from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). She began her research career in the field of geobotany, conservation biology and paleoecology in the UPM. Since 2009 she works at INIA for the Spanish National Forest Inventory (NFI). Her research work is aimed at tracking evidence of the impact of global change on forest ecosystems at different spatial and temporal scales through the analysis of the information derived from NFIs. She also participates in projects for the harmonisation of wood resource assessments from NFI information in an international framework. She is author and coauthor of several scientific articles, as well as books and book chapters, related to her research fields.
John Redmond John Redmond is a Forestry Inspector working with Ireland's national forest authority, the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine. Prior to joining the Department in 2006, he worked with the state forest company (Coillte Teoranta) on forest resource planning. In his current role he is responsible for Ireland's National Forest Inventory, national statistics, regulation of felling and is also involved in forecasting private sector timber resource. Through his role as National Correspondent, he has worked on the international forest reporting processes of Forest Resource Assessment (FAO) and State of Europe's Forests (FOREST EUROPE/UNECE/FAO). As a member of the ENFIN group (European National Forest Inventories Network) he has participated in several projects aimed at harmonising forest assessment processes used in national forest inventories.