Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament - Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the implementation of the Forest Focus scheme according to Regulation (EC) No 2152/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 concerning monitoring of forests and environmental interactions in the Community (Forest Focus) {SEC(2008) 30}
Date: 2008-01-22
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU action, EU environmental policy, activity report, environmental monitoring, forest conservation, transfrontier pollution

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 22.1.2008 
COM(2008) 6 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the 
implementation of the Forest Focus scheme 
according to Regulation (EC) No 2152/2003 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council of 17 November 2003 concerning monitoring of forests and environmental 
interactions in the Community (Forest Focus) 

{SEC(2008) 30} 

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1. 

INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE 

This  report  responds  to  the  reporting  requirements  of  Article  19  of  Regulation  2152/2003. 
This regulation established a Community scheme (hereinafter referred to as 'Forest Focus') for 
broad based harmonised and comprehensive long-term monitoring of the condition of forests 
for a period of 4 years from 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2006.  

This  regulation  was  repealed  by  Regulation  (EC)  No  614/2007  of  the  European  Parliament 
and  of  the  Council  concerning  the  Financial  Instrument  for  the  Environment  (LIFE+).  As 
LIFE+ provides for measures relevant to the scope of Forest Focus, it is proposed not to make 
any proposal regarding the continuation of Forest Focus beyond 2006. 

The report, therefore, is confined in scope to the implementation phase of Forest Focus. 

2. 

FOREST FOCUS: THE SCHEME AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION 

2.1. 

Background and Objectives  

Forest Focus built on earlier legislation related mainly to forest health condition monitoring 
under  the  UNECE  Convention  on  Long  Range  Trans-boundary  Air  Pollution  (CLRTAP)  to 
which  the  Community  is  a  party1.  The  relevant  Community  legislation,  Council  Regulation 
(EEC) No 3528/86 of 17 November 1986 on the protection of the Community's forests against 
atmospheric  pollution2  and  Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  2158/92  of  23  July  1992  on 
protection of the Community's forests against fire3 expired at the end of 2002. 

Forest  Focus  centred  on  monitoring  atmospheric  pollution  of  forests,  monitoring  of  forest 
fires, their causes and effects and forest fire prevention. The scheme also foresaw developing 
new  monitoring  instruments  relating  to  soil  monitoring,  carbon  sequestration,  biodiversity, 
climate  change  and  protective  functions  of  forests,  as  well  as  evaluating  the  efficiency  of 
monitoring  activities.  In  this  context,  the  Member  States  are  currently  carrying  out  studies, 
experiments and demonstration projects, which are to be completed in 2008. 

Under the scheme, networks of thousands of observation points and plots (Level I and Level 
II  plots,  see  footnote  1)  were  maintained  in  order  to  produce  periodic  inventories  and  carry 
out continuous monitoring of forest ecosystems.  

1 

2 
3 

ICP Forests (the International Co-operative Programme on assessment and monitoring of air pollution 
effects  on  forests)  was  launched  in  1985  under  the  Convention  on  Long-range  Transboundary  Air 
Pollution of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) due to the growing public 
awareness  of  possible  adverse  effects  of  air  pollution  on  forests.  ICP  Forests  monitors  the  forest 
condition  in  Europe,  in  cooperation  with  the  European  Commission  using  two  different  monitoring 
intensity levels. The first grid (called Level I) is based on around 6000 observation plots on a systematic 
transnational grid of 16 x 16 km throughout Europe. The intensive monitoring level comprises around 
800 Level II plots in selected forest ecosystems in Europe. These Level I and II plots are common with 
the  Forest  Focus  programme.  Currently  40  countries  participate  in  the  ICP  Forests.  See  also: 
http://www.icp-forests.org/Political.htm 
OJ L 326, 21.11.1985, p.2. 
OJ L 217, 31.07.1992, p.3-7. 

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2.2. 

Operation 

The Commission was responsible for coordinating, monitoring and developing the scheme. In 
order to achieve the objectives of Forest Focus, Member States were required to draw up two-
year national programmes for 2003/2004 and 2005/2006 (split in two phases 2005 and 2006). 
These programmes were submitted to the Commission for approval and were also subject to 
ex-ante evaluations. 

Each  Member  State  was  required  to  designate  a  competent  authority  to  manage  its  national 
programme.  However,  as  Belgium,  Germany  and  Portugal  designated  more  than  one 
competent  authority  per  country,  a  total  of  41  competent  authorities  are  implementing  the 
scheme.  This  includes  competent  authorities  in  EU  10  (except  Malta)  which  joined  the 
scheme in 2004. 
The Commission adopted Decisions4 on the designation of the national agencies carrying out 
the  scheme,  the  national  programmes  and  their  budget  and  notified  the  Decisions  to  the 
participating Member States. Subsequently, the Commission concluded agreements for each 
of the national programme periods with the national competent bodies. On the basis of these 
decisions,  the  Commission  concluded,  in  total,  123  agreements  with  the  competent  bodies 
covering, in full, the period 2003-06. 

The  total  Forest  Focus  budget  over  the  4-year  period  was  €M  65,  including  €M  9  for  fire 
prevention measures. The European Union contributed financially towards the cost of national 
programmes at a rate of 50% or 75% depending on the type of activity. Annex I shows the 
yearly breakdown of the actions developed under the scheme. 

Forest Focus activities in each national programme can be divided into (see Figures 1 and 2): 

- A activities concerning project coordination and management, such as activities related to 
the coordination of the national programme; 

-  B1  activities  carried  out  on  the  basis  of  the  Level  I  monitoring  network,  such  as 
installation and maintenance of the systematic gridnet ; 

-  B2  activities  carried  out  on  Level  II  plots  involving  intensive  monitoring,  i.e.  activities, 
such as crown condition measurements; 

-  B3  activities  on  forest  fire  prevention,  including  the  European  Forest  Fire  Information 
System.  Activities  included  are  the  establishment  of  firebreaks,  maintenance  and  further 
development of the European Forest Fires Information System (EFFIS) and awareness raising 
campaigns; 

- C activities: Studies and demonstration projects, such as studies on the identification of 
causes and dynamic of forest fires, monitoring test phases (see also list of studies in the annex) 

4 

Decision 2003-2004: Commission Decision C(2004)4901final 
Decision 2005: Commission Decision C(2006)874 final 
Decision 2006: Commission Decision C(2006) 2466 final 

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2003-2006 Allocation by activities

C activities
30%

B3 activities
17%

A activities
7%

B1 activities
8%

B2 activities
38%

Fig.  1:  Budget  allocation  by  percentage  of  type  of  activity.  (A:  project  coordination  and 
management;  B1:  Level  I  monitoring;  B2:  Level  II  intensive  monitoring;  B3:  forest  fire 
prevention; C: studies and demonstration projects) 

The  Commission  (DG  Joint  Research  Centre)  supported  and  supports  the  scheme  both 
technically and scientifically. Its scientific coordination body has set up a database designed 
to fulfil the needs of the data collection regime of the scheme and has developed and further 
improved  the  European  Forest  Fire  Information  System  (EFFIS)  according  to  requirements 
expressed by the Member States and the Parliament. The JRC manages the European Forest 
Data Centre of the Commission. 

On the basis of a grant agreement with the Commission, ICP-Forests (see footnote 1) assured 
the functioning of expert panels and developed harmonised methods and standards of forest 
condition  monitoring  at  Level  I  &  II,  including  the  elaboration  of  a  common  monitoring 
manual and quality assurance / quality control systems for field observations and laboratory 
analyses.  For  fulfilling  these  tasks,  ICP-Forests  was  supported  by  6  partners,  mainly  forest 
research institutes. 

)

O
R
U
E

(

t
e
g
d
u
b
d
e
t
a
c
o

l
l
a
l
a
t
o
T

20.000.000,00 €

15.000.000,00 €

10.000.000,00 €

5.000.000,00 €

0,00 €

C activities

B3 activities

B2 activities

B1 activities

A activities 

2003

0,00 €

750.000,00 €

4.428.181,36 €

881.599,00 €

476.573,61 €

2004

2005

2006

4.943.210,57 €

3.399.977,00 €

5.291.737,72 €

1.177.924,17 €

942.459,16 €

3.953.662,00 €

3.930.750,00 €

5.963.462,00 €

1.295.199,00 €

1.258.348,69 €

8.106.686,81 €

1.283.556,00 €

5.843.317,47 €

1.328.174,62 €

1.213.405,23 €

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Fig.2: Budget allocation by type of activity from 2003 to 2006. (A: project coordination and 
management;  B1:  Level  I  monitoring;  B2:  Level  II  intensive  monitoring;  B3:  forest  fire 
prevention; C: studies and demonstration projects) 

3. 

REPORTING 

The  Member  States  fulfilled  their  annual  reporting  obligations  by  forwarding  to  the 
Commission  annual  data  (also  making  it  publicly  available5),  collected  under  Forest  Focus 
accompanied  by  an  annual  report.  Mid-term  reports  dealing  with  the  first  period  of  the 
programme (2003-2004) have now been delivered to the Commission. Final reports are due 
when each of the national programmes is completed which can be expected to be up to three 
years  after  the  programme  period  in  question.  This  delay  is  mainly  due  to  the  need  to 
complete studies. In addition, the competent bodies implementing the scheme have to inform 
the Commission regularly on the progress they make in implementing the programme.  

Overall  Forest  Focus  reporting  is  assured  through  yearly  reports  published  by  the  European 
Commission  and  ICP-Forests,  as  well  as  through  a  series  of  scientific  publications  (see 
http://www.icp-forests.org/Reports.htm)  which  are  used  to  inform  national  forest  and 
environmental policies. The drafting and publication of the ICP-Forest reports is co-financed 
by the Commission on the basis of a grant agreement. 

4. 

DETAILED ASPECTS OF IMPLEMENTATION 

4.1. 

Forest fires 

A  permanent  but  informal  group  of  experts  on  forest  fires  was  set  up  in  1998  by  the 
Commission  and  Member  States  as  an  information  exchange  platform  with  the  aim  of 
developing advanced methods for the evaluation of forest fire risk and mapping of burnt areas 
at  the  European  scale.  In  the  following  years,  these  activities  led  to  the  development  of  the 
European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS)6 by the Joint Research Centre. EFFIS was 
further  supported  under  the  Forest  Focus  scheme  and  its  continuation  was  assured  by  an 
administrative  arrangement  between  DG  Environment  and  DG  Joint  Research  Centre.  The 
storage and analyses of the data collected by the Member States and the coordination of fire 
related activities at European level are done in the context of EFFIS which provides daily fire 
risk forecast, analyses the yearly fire risk evolution and evaluates the most recent fire season, 
thus identifying eventual weaknesses in managing and combating fires inside and outside the 
EU  territory.  The  activities  of  EFFIS  are  coordinated  by  the  Commission  to  deliver 
information  to  the  final  users,  mainly  civil  protection  and  forest  services  in  the  Member 
States.  EFFIS  is  also  used  for  assessing  forest  damage  claims  contained  in  applications  for 
financial  assistance  from  the  European  Solidarity  Fund7.  The  forest  fire  expert  group  is 
composed by experts from the national authorities, including civil protection. The group is the 
only  common  fire  expert  network  at  EU  level  and  includes  representatives  of  all  Member 
States and some Mediterranean third countries facing significant fire risks. This co-operation 
with  neighbouring  third  countries  is  of  considerable  value  since  the  establishment  of  cross-

5 

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7 

Although  the  publication  and  dissemination  of  data  was  discussed  several  times  with  the  competent 
bodies,  no  agreement  could  be  reached  on  this  issue.  Data  are  therefore  not  available  for  the  general 
public, unless the data owners are consulted. 
EFFIS  is  aimed  to  provide  relevant  information  for  the  protection  of  forests  against  fire  in  Europe 
addressing both pre-fire and post-fire conditions http://effis.jrc.it/wmi/viewer.html 
Council Regulation 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002, OJ L 311, 14.11.1002, p.3. 

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border prevention measures and mutual assistance in fire-fighting activities relies on common 
European fire risk mapping.  

Forest Focus allowed funding for structural fire prevention measures, such as the building of 
forest  tracks,  water  supply  points  or  fire  detection  stations,  provided  that  they  were  not 
supported by the Rural Development Regulation (EC) No 1257/19998 and that they were not 
included in the national or regional rural development programmes.  

An ad hoc working group of forest fire prevention experts composed by representatives from 
interested Member States and the main non governmental organisations involved in the forest 
sector  was  established  in  2004  to  put  forward  proposals  to  the  Commission  about  how  to 
address forest fire prevention policies after 2006.  

Amongst  its  recommendations9  this  working  group  proposed  that  the  LIFE+  and  Rural 
Development  Regulations  should  both  establish  specific  provisions  for  protecting  the 
environment against fires. For the period 2007-13 both do so. LIFE+ contains provisions for 
information and awareness-raising campaigns in relation to forest fires, as well as training of 
agents  involved  in  fire  prevention.  Rural  development  provides  for  fire  prevention  and 
restoration measures. In addition, the working group supported EFFIS as a strategic planning 
tool and as a core element of forest fire monitoring. The work of EFFIS which was supported 
by Forest Focus is assured till end 2010 by means of a grant of the European Parliament on 
forest protection and conservation.  

Since  2000,  and  in  close  collaboration  with  the  group  of  experts,  the  Commission  issues  a 
yearly report on forest fires10 which refers to fire statistics in the most affected Member States 
(see tables "number of fires" and "burnt area" in Annex). 

4.2. 

Forest condition and other environmental monitoring – the evaluation report  

Although  various  studies  under  Forest  Focus  will  not  be  completed  until  2008,  the 
Commission  undertook  an  external  evaluation  related  notably  to  the  management  of  the 
programme  and  forest  condition  monitoring  in  2005.  The  evaluation  was  carried  out  by  the 
research institutes "Forest Research" (UK) and "Finnish Forest Research Institute" (FI) (see: 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/pdf/final_report.pdf ). 

The evaluation suggested the following: 

The management of the programmes was cost effective but that in Member States with more 
than one competent authority the administrative burden was increased. 

Monitoring  activities  (Level  I+II  plots)  should  focus  more  widely  than  on  forest  health 
condition related to air pollution. They should include parameters related to climate change, 
biodiversity and the protective functions of forests. 

Data  from  national  forest  inventories  should  be  taken  into  account  when  forest  monitoring 
takes place. 

The continuation of the monitoring scheme should be assured.  

The  report  also  points  out  that  the  ending  of  the  Forest  Focus  Regulation  removes  the 
obligation  from  the  Member  States  to  conduct  coordinated  EU-level  forest  monitoring,  and 
that in order to avoid uncoordinated activities in the future, it would be necessary to develop 

8 

10 

OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p.80. 
9http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/wgffp.htm, 
http://forest.jrc.it/documents/2006/ForestFiresInEurope2005.pdf  

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an  EU-wide  framework  which  allows  for  efficient  management,  data  recording,  analysis, 
quality control and reporting. 

The  Commission  points  out  that  while  this  evaluation  was  carried  out  at  an  early  stage  of 
implementation, its main recommendation concerning the extension of monitoring activities is 
now included within the scope of LIFE+. 

The Commission recalls that the continuation of forest monitoring activities is also indicated 
in the EU Forest Action Plan11 2007 – 2011. Key action 8 of the Action Plan proposes to work 
towards establishing a European Forest Monitoring System. The Council Conclusions12 on the 
EU Forest Action Plan also indicate a clear commitment from the Member States to further 
develop a European forest monitoring system. 

Proposals  under  LIFE+  have  not  yet  been  received,  but  can  include  the  involvement  of 
national  forest  authorities  responsible  for  inventories.  As  LIFE+  is  project  based  with 
voluntary participation, monitoring should, in future, be more related to specific policy issues 
such  as  climate  change,  biodiversity  and  the  protective  functions  of  forests  rather  than  a 
continuation  of  a  series  of  observations  on  the  basis  of  traditional  parameters  related  to  air 
pollution as was the situation under Forest Focus.  

With  regard  to  the  management  of  the  scheme,  the  Commission  indicates  that  average 
financial  commitment  per  programme  is  low.  For  2003-2004  it  amounted  to  approximately 
€M0.5 per contracting party with a range between € 20.000 and €M 2.7. For 2005 it was €M 
0.4 with a range between € 20.000 and €M 2.1 and for 2006 €M 0.4 ranging from € 28.000 to 
€M 2.1. Of this, approximately 7% was devoted by the various competent authorities to co-
ordination and management of the national programmes. 

11 
12 

COM(2006) 302 final of 15.6.2006. 
Council  Conclusions  on  the  EU  Forest  Action  Plan  2007  –  2011.  2758th  Agriculture  and  Fisheries 
Council meeting. 24 – 25 October 2006. 

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