Progress towards harmonised assessment of availability and use of wood resources in Europe

A willingness to create precise definitions for terms describing forest resources between the National Forest Inventory (NFIs) data providers and UN international organisations dates back to the late nineties. European NFIs enhanced this harmonisation process by introducing the concepts of (i) reference definitions agreed by consensus but enforcing a more rigorous interpretation of such definitions (ii) bridges that allow for the transformation of national data into comparable data using an associated reference definition. Illustrative examples of some key definitions and case studies for generating comparable data are the core focus of this chapter. Discussions on recent harmonisation processes, including the way of working and a framework for future proposals are given by way of conclusion.