Austrian Federal Office and Research Centre for Forests | Forest inventory | Evaluation

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The Austrian Forest Inventory under way

Preparations are under way to conduct the Austrian Forest Inventory, the largest monitoring project of the "green lung" of Austria. The Forest Inventory is executed by the Federal Forest Research Centre on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. 30 graduated foresters and forest-guards are charged with the assessment of the forest ecosystem. Up to 2002 they will collect ecological and economic data on more than 11.000 observation points all over Austria, which provide the basis for decision-making in the field of policy, forestry and forest research. Compared at the international level the Austrian Forest Inventory is a good example for conducting a successful inventory. By this inventory Austria demonstrates her commitments to the monitoring requirements set out under the programme "Protection of the European Forests".

Strengthening the ecological point of view

Already during the last forest inventory period much emphasis has been placed on ecology aspects in addition to pure economic considerations, a trend which will even be strengthened during the surveys which have been started recently. Since the Environment Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, a number of international resolutions and agreements have been drafted and ratified committing Austria to monitor the development of her forests on a continuous basis.

The Austrian Forest Inventory provides traditional data on forested land, timber yield and increment, in order to answer questions concerning the development of forest condition and biodiversity. In addition to the sustainability of timber production non-market functions such as biodiversity conservation, ecological stability and regeneration are being addressed using "ecological parameters" and survey methods from other biophysical sciences.

Austria - a model at the international level

With 47 % of the Austrian territory covered by forests Austria is one of the most forested countries in Europe. The surveys of the Forest Inventory performed from 1992 to 96 showed that the forested area in Austria has been increasing steadily and that 30 % more timber is growing than is being harvested. A study on the naturalness of the Austrian forest in 1997 shows that two thirds of the forest consist of ecologically sound stands. Problem areas continue to be the development of protection forests which require continuous monitoring. Given the importance of the forest, the Austrian government places much emphasis on forest inventory investing every year around 35 million Austrian shillings.

Quick retrieval of inventory results

In order to make available the results of the inventory on a short-term basis it is planned to reduce the duration of the survey period at constant survey density from five to three years. This requires more technical capacity which is provided by the University of Agricultural Sciences. In order to combine terrestrial data with information from satellite imagery new portable field computers and GPS technology is used. These devices facilitate the collection of comprehensive data quantities, plausibility assessments and the logical comparison with the data of the most recent forest inventory right on the spot.