Under the auspices of the FIRS Project (Forest Information from Remote Sensing) the European Forest Institute (EFI) conducted a study on the definition of a system of nomenclature for mapping European forests and for compiling a Pan-European forest information system. The project started in May 1995 and was finished in December 1995.
The project was organised in modular form. In the first phase of the project three tasks have been carried out:
1) An information needs assessment and selection of 21 key attributes for the information groups 'production', 'environmental impact' and 'land use'.
2) Evaluation of the existing nomenclature for the 21 key attributes in 30 European countries, including Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the European part of CIS.
3) A comparative study summarising the existing nomenclature and evaluating the ease of harmonisation for each key-attribute and the number of countries which have to implement major changes to follow a harmonised nomenclature. [...]