| Author (Corporate) | European Commission: DG Environment |
|---|---|
| Series Details | COM (2023) 728 |
| Publication Date | 22/11/2023 |
| Content Type | Blog & Commentary, News, Policy-making |
Summary:Legislative initiative tabled by the European Commission on 22 November 2023, seeking to plug existing gaps in the information on forests and create a comprehensive forest knowledge base. It also known as the draft Forest Monitoring Law. This is a text with EEA relevance. Further information:Forests and other wooded land across the European Union (EU) are increasingly stressed by climate change and unsustainable direct or indirect human use and activity, and land use changes. A comprehensive, high-quality monitoring system that covers all forests and other wooded land in the EU can help to better counter all the related pressures and hazards. Long-term integrated planning is deemed essential to keep the variety of demands for forest service and resources in balance and ensure disaster resilience according to EU policy objectives and targets for forest services, use and protection. Existing monitoring tools are not fully fit for purpose. There are gaps in terms of timeliness and wider availability of data, leading to uncertainty about its reliability and limitations to its use. There has been no work on harmonising other ground-based data on variables, especially relating to biodiversity, making an EU-wide assessment of the forest ecosystem’s condition difficult. Available data on forests has significant gaps, which hamper effective forest disaster prevention, preparedness, and response by land managers and relevant authorities. Several forest parameters can only be reliably mapped and monitored across the EU by combining ground observations, remote sensing, and modelling. This combination is complex and challenging, often due to data-sharing and access issues. Overall, information about the status of forests in the EU, their ecological, social and economic value, the pressures they face and ecosystem services they provide, is fragmented and patchy, largely heterogeneous and inconsistent, with data gaps and overlaps, and data is provided with significant delay and often only on a voluntary basis. In this context, the draft law seeks to:
The proposed Regulation was adopted by the European Commission on 22 November 2023. |
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| Source Link | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=COM:2023:728:FIN |
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| Subject Categories | Environment |
| Subject Tags | Forestry | Timber, Risk | Crisis Management |
| International Organisations | European Union [EU] |
