Reporting on forest damages and disturbances in the UNECE region

Abstract

Forests provide multiple ecosystem services to society which are directly dependent on the vitality and health of forest ecosystems. In the past decades, the frequency and scale of events leading to large-scale damage/disturbance of forests have been increasing in the UNECE region. Examples include the forest dieback in Europe in the 1980s, the mountain pine beetle calamity in Canada in the late 1990s, drought and bark beetle damages in Central Europe since 2018, and devastating forest fires in the United States and Canada since the past decade. To some extent this tendency can be attributed to the changing climatic conditions, and it is very likely that the frequency and intensity of climate-induced extreme weather events will increase in the future. Forest health and vitality are important aspects for assessing the state of forests and their sustainable management. This involves reporting on damage/disturbance that are caused by biotic and abiotic factors and are of natural or humaninduced origin. Biotic factors include insects and diseases, wildlife and cattle grazing in forests. Abiotic factors include fire, storm, wind, snow, drought and avalanche. Direct humaninduced damage//disturbance can be caused e.g., by illegal activities or carelessness, or is the consequence of indirect effects such as damage/disturbance caused by air pollution. Therefore, information on the current state of and trends in forest damage/disturbance at multiple spatial scales will be essential for effective policy and management response to these challenges (Attiwill, 1994; Gardiner et al., 2013; Johnson et al., 2003; Lertzman and Fall, 1998; Perera and Buse, 2004; Wei and Kimmins, 2012). Despite the pressing need for additional knowledge about forest damage and disturbance, international reporting on forest damage/disturbance faces serious challenges, making an assessment significantly more difficult. Apparent problems are the lack of data as well as fragmented and/or unharmonized national monitoring systems. Evidence-based decision-making is in constant need of comparing current information demands with the information provided by international reporting. As forest ecosystem services are endangered by the increase of forest damage/ disturbance, the reporting and assessment of biotic, abiotic and human induced forest damage/disturbance in the UNECE region calls for urgent adjustments to meet the current information needs. The objective of this study is to provide a basis for improved reporting by analysing the current international understanding of forest damage/disturbance reporting, as well as current international reporting schemes. Further, the study contains a detailed analysis of national forest damage/disturbance assessments, highlighting the data that could be available for international reporting. Finally, the study lists a number of conclusions for improving the information on forest damage/disturbance and the transparent, complete, consistent, comparable and reliable reporting in the UNECE region.

Citation

Köhl M; Koch FH; Linser S; Melin M; Robertson G; Talarczyk A. 2024. Reporting on forest damages and disturbances in the UNECE region. United Nations Pub. ECE/TIM/SP/57. Geneva, Switzerland: UN Economic Commission for Europe and UN Food and Agriculture Organization. 76 p