Finnish body leads forest resources info project
The Natural Resource Institute Finland has announced its co-ordination of the €5m ‘Distributed, integrated and harmonised forest information for bioeconomy outlooks’ (DIABOLO) project at a kick-off meeting in Joensuu, Finland.
The two-day meeting, ending on 28 April, saw the DIABOLO project consortium agree the framework on how to achieve, disseminate, communicate and start exploiting its main research project outputs. The venture aims to provide more accurate, harmonised and timely information on forest resources through the collaborative network of European National Forest Inventories (ENFIN). The results of the four-year project will support the development of EU policies and international processes relying on consistent and up-to-date forest information, as well as help improve knowledge on European forest resources to support the development of an innovative, sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy. The project is receiving just over €4.7m from the European Commission through Horizon 2020.
Project participants also agreed to improve the methods of data collection, such as national forest inventories and monitoring systems, and methodologies to make innovative use of data collected using terrestrial, aerial and space-based platforms. DIABOLO aims at producing better knowledge of forest resources and their ability to sustainably supply forest ecosystem goods and services as required by a broad range of relevant stakeholders.
The DIABOLO consortium consists of 33 partners from 25 European countries in quantitative modelling, policy and social science, and national forest inventories. It hopes to deliver its final data to a variety of end-uses within the ecological, social and economic diversity sectors in Europe.
