Despite forests covering almost 40% of land in the EU, we don’t have easily accessible, real-time information about what is happening to them. Instead, we get assessments every five years that send worrying signals on the state of our forests long after we should have acted.
Policymakers, foresters and most recently Earth Observation experts1 have advocated for better information about our forests as a way to mitigate forestry risks, whether overharvesting, climate impacts or limiting forest degradation. But the European Parliament’s draft report on the Forest Monitoring Law has made a sharp U-turn away from important advances in forest information: it significantly weakens key provisions related to Earth Observation, data precision and transparency. While the European Commission’s original proposal aimed to enhance forest monitoring through precise data, the draft report would send important new information back to the shadows.
Weakening Earth Observation data: One of the most concerning aspects of the draft report is its dilution of Earth Observation requirements, outlined in Annex I of the original proposal. By removing many of the indicators that would provide annual or more frequent reporting about important forest features, such as density of tree cover or defoliation (loss of leaves/needles, which helps to assess tree mortality), the draft weakens the ability to monitor forest changes in near real-time. This move threatens the effectiveness of the proposed law, as it would limit access to crucial data that could support improved forest management and halt degradation in Europe.
No obligation to share information, and dropping precise data that improves forest knowledge: It is already well known that national forest inventories are quickly out of date, as they are typically only updated every 5-10 years. Satellite data can improve the coverage of data, but its accuracy depends on ‘ground-truthing,’ i.e., confirming features observed in imagery at the actual field site. The draft report makes this near impossible by removing location-specific data that would help satellites.
The draft masks precise locations that are usually referred to as “geographically explicit” with the term “geo-referenced” data, which is much broader and can cover large regions or even entire countries – erasing its effectiveness for fine-tuning satellite imagery.
Additionally, several key indicators have been either deleted or altered to make them less effective. For example, the location of primary and old-growth forests, as well as protected areas, would be presented as an area (example: 624,500 ha of old-growth forests in Finland) rather than located precisely on a map. This shift throws up a barrier to identifying where illegal activities are being carried out, as well as to protecting our few remaining old-growth and primary forests.
Another alarming change in the draft report is the shift towards voluntary data-sharing among Member States. The original proposal included a framework for collecting forest data that integrated national forest inventory (NFI) data with Earth Observation data. However, the draft report removes this framework and allows Member States to use their own existing forest monitoring schemes, without a requirement to provide geographically explicit data.
How can we fight abusive practices and offer useful information to forest managers and researchers?
If the recent weakening of the Forest Monitoring Law remains – diminishing satellite data’s use and development, reducing the precision and utility of forest data, and making data sharing voluntary – then the regulation will not be able to support cross-boundary collaboration between EU Member States to tackle the existential issues facing forestry in Europe as a result of climate change. Only with robust and usable data can the EU turn information into knowledge about how best to equip our forests for future generations. The Amendments will be considered in the Agriculture and Environmental committees in March before votes to approve the amended report in June.
1 Earth Observation experts associated with several forest monitoring projects outlined the importance satellite data can play in better forestry planning: FORWARDS, Forest Navigator, Open Earth Monitor and the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC)
Go back to the main page Sign up for Forest Watch
Image: Karl Ander Adami / Alamy
Categories: News, Forest Watch, European forests