Project

The project aims at the creation of a pan-European forest monitoring system which can serve as a basis for the provision of policy relevant information on forests in the European Union as required under international obligations and key action 8 of the Forest Action Plan (COM 2006 final).

Background

During the 1980s health status of European forests declined. Defoliation, discolouration and tree mortality above usual mortality levels gave rise to serious concern. In order to objectively describe changes of forest health status foresters and scientists all over Europe started to periodically monitor indicators of forest health like defoliation and discolouration. Furthermore, possible causes for forest health deterioration were also recorded. The main cause for forest decline at that time was feared to be the high concentration of sulphur species that caused acid rain and a high input of acidifying substances into the soil. These findings stressed the necessity of air pollution abatement policies. These were implemented under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) and under related EU clean air policies and resulted in a 70% decline of sulphate deposition.

A considerable part of the underlying scientific information needed for this process has been provided by the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests since 1986 (Link ICP Forests).

Over the years a two-level monitoring system has been developed. General information on forest health status is annually recorded on so-called (link) Level I monitoring sites. More intensive investigations are realised on (link) Level II sites. Additionally most of the European countries monitor their forests on a national level on their own accord (link) (National Forest Inventories). The National Forest Inventories in many countries include Level I sites, but monitor national forest condition in a denser grid.

One of the important achievements of 25 years of European Forest Monitoring is the development of well-documented harmonised indicators and criteria for forest health as well as monitoring methods. The application of these in forest monitoring today allows a good comparability of monitoring results.

Today air pollution and the deposition of pollutants in forests and on their soils is not the only threat to forests anymore, even though the deposition of nitrate still is a serious problem. Increasing concentrations of ozone, declining biodiversity and climate change come into focus. It is widely accepted that the Earth’s climate is undergoing significant human-induced changes. Main changes are increased global mean temperatures and increased frequency of extreme events of drought and storms. Limited water availability may affect whole forests or only single tree species. Single events of extreme drought and heat stress like the summer of 2003 can cause growth declines, high levels of mortality and even delayed multi-year effects (Hinweis auf FAO-Artikel). Consequently, altered water regimes are considered the most serious threat to forests all over the world. We can already make quite precise predictions how the climate will develop using climate modelling. However, it is widely accepted that a high biodiversity in forests are the best way to guarantee that forests will be able to adapt to present and future changes.

Under these new threats it is a challenge for the international community to keep the forests as vital, diverse and healthy as possible in order to preserve one of the most important resources. Sustainable management and protection of forest functions needs scientifically sound data which can be gained based on the well-established monitoring system for Europes Forests. However, to meet data needs that come with new environmental problems like climate change and conservation of biodiversity, the monitoring system that until now has focused on effects of air pollution, has to be revised and further developed. The main objective is to gain more information on each single plot. As a consequence the total number of plots monitored can be reduced.

Objectives

For the above mentioned reasons and in close cooperation with ICP Forests FutMon will revise the European Monitoring System to make it more effective. Second, the process of harmonising and improving existing methods will be continued. FutMon uses latest technical developments and defines and implements more precise monitoring methods in order to collect data more efficiently.

Last but not least FutMon will comprehensively analyse the existing data with respect to carbon allocation in trees, forest soil condition, critical loads of air pollutants and their exceedances, dynamic modelling of future effect of air pollution and climate change (water availability and drought stress) on forests.

Project Funding

FutMon is being carried out by 38 beneficiaries from nearly all EU-Member States. The project has a total budget of 34.44 Mio €. Under the funding of Life+ the EU contributes 16.14 Mio € to the total budget. The remaining budget is provided by national authorities of the respective beneficiaries.