Improved modalities for reporting and assessment of forest disturbance/damage in the UNECE region

The aim of the project is to optimize the monitoring and reporting of forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region. Our forests are exposed to an increasing number of different threats that endanger the vitality of their ecosystems. However, healthy and vital forests are a basic prerequisite for the provision of ecosystem services and functions, for the supply of wood as a renewable resource and for the creation of green jobs. Therefore, accurate and timely information on forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region is crucial for national, regional and global action. Information on forest disturbance and damage is collected through the FAO Global Forest Resource Assessment and regional processes such as FOREST EUROPE and the Montréal Process. However, the preliminary project (2020-2022) to analyze nationally reported data on forest disturbance and damage in the UNECE region shows data gaps and inconsistencies in reporting as well as a lack of comparability and timeliness of data. There is great potential and an urgent need to improve international reporting on forest disturbance and damage. These harmonizations and improvements are necessary to meet the requirements of sustainable forest management and appropriate forest, environmental and resource governance. This project builds on this to significantly improve the assessment of forest disturbance and damage and international reporting in this area. It is expected that the additional information generated by this project will harmonize and optimize national monitoring systems and reporting modalities for future forest disturbance and damage reporting.