How Europe can fix its forests data gap

How Europe can fix its forests data gap

Fixing Europe’s forest data gap

Forests account for around 40% of the total land surface of the European Union, and provide valuable services that people and the environment depend on. But patchy monitoring efforts across the bloc are making it difficult to keep track of the rate at which forests are harvested or planted. Many countries’ forest data are based on manual surveys, which in some cases are carried out only once per decade or so. A Nature editorial calls on the EU to incorporate real-time satellite data from its exciting new permanent observatory on forests into official statistics.

Nature | 4 min read