Wood Provision ecosystem service Accounts aim to quantify and track the supply of wood products from forests, woodlands, or other ecosystems over time. It involves assessing factors such as the volume of timber harvested, the value of the wood products produced, and the ecological impact of harvesting on the ecosystem's ability to continue providing wood in the future. So it is considered as 'the ecosystem contributions to the growth of trees and other woody biomass'.
An offline workflow was developed to generate the wood provision service accounts based on Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) data layers, Tree Cover Density, and Gross Dry Matter Productivity. These datasets are derived from the Sentinel EO time-series. Further also the Global Forest Watch data layers are used, derived from the LandSAT EO time-series.
More information can be found in User Manual and Algorithm Theoretical Base Document.
Wood Provision ecosystem service accounts were generated for four countries: Slovakia, Greece, Norway and Italy for the year 2021.
Slovakia
The Net Annual Increment (NAI) overbark shows more than 12 million m³ is available for wood supply, mainly located in the two eastern provinces. A validation was performed on two predominant species: European Beech (hardwood) and Norway Spruce (softwood). The results show an R² of 0.24.
In general, the accounts show a good spatial consistency capturing the broad patterns in forest growth. Some overestimations of NAI could be seen in areas with older beech forest stands.
Greece
The Net Annual Increment (NAI) overbark shows almost 14 million m³, covering an area of more than 3 million hectares, is available for wood supply, mainly located in the central-east area.
An evaluation has shown that in areas dominated by hardwood, the NAI values are closer to the expected values. In softwood areas, especially the Abies cephalonica and Pinus nigra forests, an overestimation was found.
Norway
The NET Annual Increment (NAI) overbark shows almost 24 million m³, covering an area of more than 8 million hectares, is available for wood supply, mainly located in the south-east regions of Innlandet, Viken and More og Romsdal.
An evaluation has shown that the hectares of productive forest land is only 1.5 per cent different compared to the official statistics. Also, the NAI shows a number quite close to the official statistics, however an overestimate could be found in the northern most part as well as in the southern most part. This overestimate is mostly linked to the tree species dominating the forest in these counties which is quite different than the other counties.
Italy
The NET Annual Increment (NAI) overbark shows more than 34 million m³, covering an area of almost 8 million hectares, is available for wood supply, scattered throughout several areas.
The results were compared to the official statistics and show satisfactory results at national level. Some limitations in geographical more complex areas were detected which could be overcome with the addition of regional data and refinements in wood categorization.