Field research and monitoring of Europe's forests: a historical perspective

Paris

2005

Unselbständiges Werk

2-914770-11-1

14872

200128767

With this overview, in combination with the following country reports, we describe the evolution of forest field research and monitoring in Europe by pointing out some major trends. Furthermore, by making this pan-European survey and overview we hope that the long-term field investments made by the forest research community will become known and recognised as an asset not only to forest research, but also to science and the society as a whole. By giving a few examples we show that this asset has played an integrated role in the development of today's science and contributed with information and knowledge for a sustainable development of Europe. Furthermore, we think that this asset could be better used by the scientific community, and that it, although valuable as it is, need to be not only preserved but also developed in accordance with the evolution of scientific concepts.