Forest disturbance and damage: Perspectives for forest monitoring and reporting

In this forest perspectives paper, we explore issues and concepts involved in the enhancement of regional monitoring frameworks for reporting on forest disturbances and damages. First, we consider the different meanings of “forest disturbance” and “forest damage,” terms that are often used interchangeably but have important differences in meaning and management implications. Human expectations, goals and concerns underlie both terms, especially forest damage, and they condition the data-gathering efforts and interpretations of resulting information. Accordingly, we also address the overall motivations for reporting forest disturbances and damages, the potentially impacted human expectations, and the general categories of impact and response. Next, we present some general observations on the ecological processes underlying forest disturbances and forest damages and the approaches used to measure them, noting the following challenges these processes pose for clear and consistent reporting across space and time: complexity of disturbance processes; attributing causality and distinguishing between proximate, intermediate and ultimate causes; spatial and temporal discontinuities; measurement protocol variations between countries. Both ecological processes and their related measurement techniques are particularistic, involving various and specific measurement techniques and protocols, and they do not always conform to conceptual generalizations. We conclude with a discussion on bridging the gap between concept and practical application of disturbance and damage monitoring and reporting. Despite challenges in aggregating diverse data on forest disturbances, doing so is crucial for improving scientific understanding, policy-making, and environmental management on regional and global scales.