The increasing competition for resources will call for new forest-related, evidence-based policies at different political levels and across different sectors. The DIABOLO annual project meeting highlighted the progress in developing distributed, integrated and harmonized forest information for bioeconomy outlooks.

The DIABOLO annual project meeting took place at Copenhagen University on 19-20 April 2016. It brought together over 60 experts and scientists from 33 leading European scientific institutions in the fields of quantitative modelling, policy and social science, and national forest inventories, all committed to providing new methodologies and information for a variety of end-uses within the ecological, social and economic diversity in Europe. Photo: Mathias Just Justesen/UCPH

During the meeting in Copenhagen, the first DIABOLO results of identifying the demand, provision, flows and gaps in forest data at different political levels were presented. These results will serve as a base for a European workshop organised in Vienna, 19-20 September 2016 where invited policy makers, forest managers, data providers and key stakeholders from different levels and policy sectors are expected to identify options for bridging “gaps” between forest information demand and supply, and to suggest strategies on how to improve the knowledge communication and information exchange as regards forests.

Also first results on the harmonization of definitions for sustainable biomass supply were presented in Copenhagen. The definition will be elaborated and utilised together with 23 partners from as many European countries as a basis for distributed, integrated and harmonized biomass supply analysis. In 2016 DIABOLO stakeholders can expect also first results on the following work packages: “Harmonising growing stock, biomass and carbon estimation, and forest state monitoring based on field and high-resolution remote sensing data”; “Improving data collection and analysis for multipurpose inventory of forest resources; and “Monitoring disturbances in European forests based on space data”.

According the DIABOLO stakeholders statements (EEA, JRC and UNECE), the Copenhagen meeting demonstrated that the DIABOLO project will strengthen the methodological framework for more accurate, harmonised and timely forest information to support the development of EU policies and international processes.

The DIABOLO project coordinator, professor Tuula Packalen (Luke) emphasized the importance of stakeholder dialogue when steering the progress towards the target. “The aim of DIABOLO is to bring added value to forest data by developing new methodology. The positive feedback from stakeholders will motivate us in our challenge.”

DIABOLO – Distributed, Integrated and Harmonised Forest Information for Bioeconomy Outlooks -project (1.3.2015–28.2.2019) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.  The DIABOLO-project is coordinated by Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

More information on the European Workshop: Demands for and provision of forest information for policy making and practice in Europe: state of the art and the way forward,19-20 September 2016, Vienna, Austria.

Contacts:
Professor Tuula Packalen, DIABOLO project coordinator, WP 5 leader, Natural Resource Institute Finland (Luke), tuula.packalen@luke.fi

Researcher Markus Lier, DIABOLO project manager, Natural Resource Institute Finland (Luke), markus.lier @luke.fi