Support to forest policy analysis in the European Union through the Forest Information System for Europe.

This article analyzes new initiatives supporting policy decision-making in the EU forest sector. These followed from the recent adoption of the new EU Forest Strategy in September 2013. Despite efforts on harmonization in the forest sector, the EU, which currently comprises 28 countries, is characterized by fragmentation of knowledge, data, and models among its member states. After adoption of the EU Forest Strategy, the legislative body of the EU, the European Commission, decided on the establishment of the European Forest Information System for Europe (FISE) by its Joint Research Centre (JRC) in collaboration with its member states. The JRC is the EC’s technical body, which provides scientific support for policy-making in the EU. As in many other government organizations, one of the JRC’s main challenges is to bridge the gap between quantitative forest research analysis and policy decision-making. The new FISE intends to bring together knowledge, data, and models that can provide advice to European policy-makers in the forest sector as a whole. This article presents the current structure and functions of FISE, which is organized into four modules dealing with (1) forest disturbances, (2) forest ecosystem services, (3) forest and climate change, and (4) forest and the EU bioeconomy.JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat