Changes in forest damage regimes and an increased severeness of disturbances are posing serious challenges to the world’s forests. Damages and disturbances are threatening the supply of ecosystem services and the maintenance of forest health and vitality.

The latest scientific findings are implying a global surge of forest damage and disturbance due to climate change-associated impacts and further global megatrends.

Sound data and thorough knowledge are an essential prerequisite for evidence-based sustainable forest management to understand the expanse, frequency and severeness of multi-factorial hazard events. Fragmented data and untimely monitoring of forest damage are hampering further scenario analysis and resilience building in the forest sector.

The Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section and the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism are jointly organizing a scientific-technical symposium to discuss problems and solutions on assessing forest damage and disturbance in the UNECE region in Vienna, Austria from 29-30 September 2022.

The symposium aims to encourage exchange of ideas, experiences and opinions as well as raise awareness about the importance of assessing of forest damage and disturbance. It will also feature presentations of the preliminary results of a project “Assessment of forest damage reporting in the UNECE region to enhance future harmonized international reporting”, initiated by the UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Monitoring SFM.

More information about the scientific-technical symposium, including link to the registration, is available here.

Registration deadline for in-person participation is 15 July 2022 for virtual participation is 23 September 2022.