Assessment of data availability for LULUCF-sector reporting in MASCAREF test countries

Reflecting the heterogeneity in land use, natural conditions and monitoring data availability, there is a wide variety in greenhouse gas reporting practices within the European Community. The MASCAREF project aims to contribute to a further harmonization and strengthening of the existing national systems to better meet international reporting requirements for LULUCF, as well as improve comparability, transparency and accuracy of the national inventory reports for LULUCF of EU Member States. It will do this based on available data from regional, national and EU-wide projects and activities that took place over the last decade, data from which are often currently not readily available for reporting improvements on national scale. The integrative work in MASCAREF is focused on five selected test areas, for each of which one specific thematic pilot study will be conducted. Four countries (Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia) and one region within a country (Umbria in Italy) were selected for this work. This report introduces the forestry sector in the test areas and summarizes the main issues related to current LULUCF reporting practice. The current National Forest Inventories in place are described, as well as the availability of data from other (European) projects. The report concludes with a description of the main focus for the respective pilot studies in MASCAREF.