During the last few years, specific emphasis has been put on the EU forest strategy for 2030 as a one of the flagship initiatives of the European Green Deal. The forest strategy sets a vision and concrete actions to improve the quantity and quality of EU and World forests, strengthening their protection, restoration and resilience.
Specific policies and regulations have been proposed and adopted including on deforestation to guarantee that the products consumed in the EU do not contribute to global deforestation, on EU forest monitoring ensuring that timely and accurate information on the condition and management of EU forests is available, and on forest fires to prevent and monitor wildfires, but also to provide support when they strike.
Earth Observation, and particularly Copernicus infrastructure, data and services, will play a critical role in the support of these policies and regulations.
The overall goal of the workshop will be to analyze and highlight the role of Copernicus in the context of the EU forest policy. The specific objectives are:
- to set the scene of the policy context and the current forest related regulations, including updates on the latest developments, particularly the EUDR and the EU Forest monitoring,
- to explain and clarify the role of and the articulation between stakeholders in the different regulations,
- to review current capacities and success stories of EO and Copernicus in the forest domain, learning from and discussing practical examples on how EO data is used,
- to identify stakeholders needs and EO challenges,
- to discuss future and potential EO development.
Speakers and stakeholders from EU Policy DGs and agencies, EU and non-EU National Public Authorities, Copernicus Entrusted Entities, Research community and Private sector will be invited to attend the workshop.
The sessions of the workshop are:
- Welcome introduction
- Session 1: Commodities Deforestation-Free regulation
- Session 2: Commodities Deforestation-Free regulation/Private sector
- Session 3: EU Forest Strategy & Forest Monitoring regulation
- Session 4: Forest monitoring beyond forest regulations
- Closing Key Note and Conclusions
For each session, key speakers will set the scene before opening on a panel discussion about how to maximize use of Copernicus data for the benefit of public and private users in the forest sector. The panels will also identify currently outstanding needs and requirements, which can inform the future development of Copernicus.
