Operational medium-scale mapping of the European forests

The FIRS Project was presented at the EARSeL Conference in Basel 1995. This paper describes the development and the results achieved since then. The current status and the major ongoing activities are presented. In general, the FIRS Project has developed from being a single project into a coordinating framework for several specific applications. The foundation Actions on “Regionalization and Stratification of European Forest Eco-systems” and “Definition of a System of Nomenclature for Mapping and for Compiling a Pan-European Forest Information System” have been completed. The SILVICS software has been developed to a full operational package. Two major R/D projects have been initiated, one by DGVI, FII.2 on forest change monitoring, and, one by CEO on forest area mapping.