PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Updated data and information on forests is needed for different reasons (e.g. to monitor forest health, carbon sequestration, impacts of climate change, provision of environmental services). This data also serves different purposes (e.g. management, conservation, reporting under different obligations) and is required by different target audiences (e.g. decision makers, resource managers, scientists, citizens). National Forest Inventories (NFI) and forest monitoring by large-scale observation networks are recognised as a major source of information on European forests. In Italy, two monitoring networks were set-up to comply with the requirements of previous EU regulations and the Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution: a large-scale monitoring network of around 260 plots on a systematic grid, and an intensive monitoring network of 31 selected case studies. These two networks are complementary to the NFI. Up until 2007, and later, from 2009-2011, forest monitoring in Europe was widely supported by ad-hoc EU regulations and projects. However, this support is no longer available. In Italy, the monitoring networks have an estimated annual cost of around €850 000 and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep the monitoring system operational in its current form. This is unfortunate because the evidence suggests that monitoring will be even more important in the future. To keep the system operational, it is, therefore, necessary to reduce its costs.
OBJECTIVES
LIFE SMART4Action aimed to redesign forest monitoring and its information and reporting system in Italy. The goal was to ensure financial sustainability, despite budget restrictions, whilst maintaining high scientific reliability. Specific activities included designing a new system to reduce current annual costs by 30%, while recognising the importance of sustainable forest management and ecosystem services; improving communication with and data transfer to relevant stakeholders (regional, provincial and local municipalities, national and regional parks, environmental agencies, managers, NGOs, citizens); and developing mechanisms to involve local people in plot management and basic monitoring.
RESULTS
The LIFE SMART4Action project successfully designed new monitoring protocols, which were field tested and shown to reduce the overall annual costs of forest monitoring by 46%. The solutions identified to simplify forest monitoring were tested at pilot sites and proved that the new protocols can guarantee a proper level of accuracy.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).
Cost reduction for the monitoring of the Sustainable Forest Monitoring (SFM) indicators was studied in six pilot plots in the "CONECOFOR" (Forest Ecosystem Control) network, looking at parameters linked to biodiversity, tree growth, crown conditions, leaf chemistry, chemical composition of air and soil, and meteorological analyses. Based on this, the project reshaped the Italian forest monitoring methodologies to reduce operating costs, while continuing to guarantee the accurateness of the analyses.
The project team developed on-line tools to check the monitoring data available for forests in Italy and to enable wider participation in the collection of the data (i.e. a web-GIS and two smart phone Apps, available to download: http://www.ise.cnr.it/it/projects/smart4action, in Italian).
Two interesting cooperation opportunities arose from networking activities during the final phase of the project. Firstly, with the Ministry of the Environment to support the implementation of the EU National Emission Ceiling (NEC) Directive and enhance knowledge and innovation on forest monitoring at the national level. Secondly, with the US National Park Department service in the framework of the IMPROVE programme, including the first tests on the 'Visibility' indicator.
Regarding the cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment on the NEC Directive, the project protocols were applied to the six pilot plots. These were considered as representative for the Directive requirements, with the protocols to then be applied to the whole CONECOFOR network (as re-designed by the project) if further funds are available to continue with forest monitoring at a wider scale. The project also contributes to the implementation of the global Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. In terms of environmental benefits, the project demonstrated the role of the Forest Monitoring Network in measuring different types of pollution, through their impacts on forest ecosystems, soils and groundwater. To maintain this role, forest monitoring needs to be based on the availability of continuous, long-term time series of data. The project demonstrated the definition of scientifically valid and economically sustainable methods to maintain and to extend these time series.
More than 1 815 people were involved in meetings, conferences and study visits organised by the project, and about 600 people participated in the study tour events at the SMART4Action monitoring sites. This increased awareness on crucial environmental issues related to forests. The new monitoring methodology will improve the long-term efficiency and economic sustainability of forest monitoring at the national scale. The reduced costs of about 46%, from €854 000 to €462 900, will allow monitoring activities to continue even with reduced funding, to maintain the provision of high-quality data. The project carried out the first cost analyses on forest monitoring parameters in Italy. Given that funds on forest monitoring are also decreasing at the European level, the methodologies have a potential wider application.
