Traditionally the purpose of National Forest Inventories (NFIs) has been to provide continuously updated information regarding the state of a given nation’s forest resources, including their timber volumes, species composition and sustainable development. But with increased international reporting requirements – to the FAO, the ITTO, the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Ministerial Conference Protecting Forest in Europe and other international bodies – the potential role of how NFIs can accurately respond to these requirements has received some considerable attention.

Addressing the issue of how well countries are able to respond to current international reporting requirements, this book discusses the importance of comparable reporting, and the possible approaches for achieving comparability across Europe and globally. It includes country status reports from 37 countries, worldwide, and it discusses methodologies and techniques for a common reporting system.

With its collection of inventories and detailed discussions on the current status and future needs of NFIs, this book provides an invaluable resource for anyone involved in developing, managing, monitoring or contributing to forest inventories, as well as to those who are researching or practising forest resource management.