New publication on forest damage assessment

Repeated and increasing intensity of forest damage poses major challenges for forest management in many parts of the world. In particular, those forest owners and forestry enterprises that are confronted with large quantities of damaged wood and damaged areas that need to be reforested can find themselves in great economic distress. However, the actual economic extent of forest damage events is often poorly understood. In Germany, for example, this is mainly because existing monitoring and reporting systems only record the size of the affected areas and the quantities of damaged wood.

In the frame of the FNEWs project the foundations for a continuous nationwide monitoring of the economic effects of forest damage have now been laid. Based on a broad-based literature review, an assessment framework was developed that includes the most important damage components. For most of these components, assessment methods could be identified that can be used to economically evaluate the natural damage determined annually, e.g. using remote sensing-based damage detection. This makes it possible to compare the economic effects of forest damage between different reporting years.

However, a nationwide economic damage assessment always requires simplifications and assumptions. A major challenge of the economic valuation is the limited availability of concrete inventory information. In addition, there are uncertainties about the reactions of the timber markets to damage events. The assumptions underlying the calculations must therefore be transparent and regularly updated.

• Fleckenstein S, Franz K, Seintsch B, Dieter M, Möhring B (2023) Economic damage assessment of forest disturbances on forestry: State of knowledge and challenges for a continuous economic loss monitoring in Germany. Allg Forst Jagdzeitg 193(3-4):41-64, DOI:10.23765/afjz00092
• Project:
  FNEWs | Remote sensing based National Detection Sytem for Forest Damages