Roberto Pilli

• Forest and environmental ecology
• Forest research activities at Freelance

Key message This collection reports the standing stock volume, increment, aboveground biomass, and biomass conversion and expansion factors attributed to 222 forest types and 48 different management types, representative of 25 EU Member States. DOI: https://zenodo.org/records/11387301 .

Forests cover about 30% of the Italian territory, and being the largest carbon sink, they have a key role to mitigate human induced GHG emissions at national, such as at European level. At the same time, forests can potentially provide a huge amount of roundwood material that can be converted to semi-finished, and finished, wood products or directl...

The growing demand for woody biomass to meet the environmental and climate objectives of the European Green Deal raises concerns about the capacity of forest ecosystems to sustain their diverse services and functions. Deadwood, an often-overlooked source of biomass, exemplifies this dilemma, yet the evidence needed to enhance its management is spar...

As forest management is increasingly influenced by climate change and climate change policy, among other factors, assessing carbon budget dynamics is essential to forecast the impacts of future wood consumption on carbon sequestration. To assess plausible future forest management options at EU level and their impacts on the forest carbon sink until...

Forest biomass is an essential resource in relation to the green transition and its assessment is key for the sustainable management of forest resources. Here, we present a forest biomass dataset for Europe based on the best available inventory and satellite data, with a higher level of harmonisation and spatial resolution than other existing data....

This report describes the input data, harmonization efforts and methodological assumptions applied for calibrating, at country level, the EU-CBM-HAT, and provides a synthesis and a systematic comparison of the main output obtained for the calibration period 2010 - 2020.

Quantification of land surface–atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) and their trends and uncertainties is essential for monitoring progress of the EU27+UK bloc as it strives to meet ambitious targets determined by both international agreements and internal regulation. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of fossil sources (CO2 fossil)...

Background The European Union (EU) has committed to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This requires a rapid reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ensuring that any remaining emissions are balanced through CO 2 removals. Forests play a crucial role in this plan: they are currently the main option for removing CO 2 from the atmosphere and...

The European Union (EU) uses biodmass to meet its needs for food and feed, energy, and materials. The demand and supply of biomass have environmental, social, and economic impacts. Understanding biomass supply, demand, costs, and their associated impacts is particularly important for relevant EU policy areas, to facilitate solid and evidence-based...

— This chapter presents an ensemble of various EU forest biomass reference datasets, based on best available data, with a higher level of harmonisation and spatial resolution compared to existing data published independently by National Forest Inventories (NFI) or produced for international reporting. — In Europe, National Forest Inventories (NFI)...

Forest area and the volume of timber stocks are essential variables describing forest resources. These information are collected within the European Forest Accounts of EUROSTAT, which include a set of accounts quantifying the stocks and flows for forest, and forestry and logging industry. The reporting on economic variables is much more complete th...

Quantification of land surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and their trends and uncertainties is essential for monitoring progress of the EU27+UK bloc as it strives to meet ambitious targets determined by both international agreements and internal regulation. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of fossil sources (CO2 f...

The timely and accurate monitoring of forest resources is becoming of increasing importance in light of the multi-functionality of these ecosystems and their increasing vulnerability to climate change. Remote sensing observations of tree cover and systematic ground observations from National Forest Inventories (NFIs) represent the two major sources...

To become carbon neutral by 2050, the European Union (EU27) net carbon sink from forests should increase from the current level of about -360 to -450 Mt CO2eq yr-1 by 2050. Reaching this target requires additional efforts, which should be informed by the expected interactions between current age-class distributions, the effect of forest management...

To become carbon neutral by 2050, the European Union (EU27) net carbon sink from forests should increase from the current level of about −360 Mt CO2e yr−1 to −450 Mt CO2e yr−1 by 2050. Reaching this target requires additional efforts, which should be based on a strategic view of the realistic evolution of European forests within the next decades, c...

The European Union (EU) aims at reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Within the land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) sector, forestry will contribute to this target with CO 2 sink, harvested wood products (HWP), and use of wood for material or energy substitution. Despite the fact that the forest sink currently offsets about 9% of the to...

The EU is at the forefront in fighting climate change. Following the commitments relevant for the Paris Agreement, the EU has recently pledged to cut off 55% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 and to reach climate neutrality in 2050. Currently, the Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector counterbalances about...

Background The contribution of EU forests to climate change mitigation in 2021–2025 is assessed through the Forest Reference Levels (FRLs). The FRL is a projected country-level benchmark of net greenhouse gas emissions against which the future net emissions will be compared. The FRL models the hypothetical development of EU forest carbon sink if th...

Reliable quantification of the sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), including that of their trends and uncertainties, is essential to monitoring the progress in mitigating anthropogenic emissions under the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of estimates for all anthropogenic and na...

1. Assessing the role of the forest-based bioeconomy in mitigating climate change requires a “system-perspective”, considering all possible options: increasing carbon stocks (‘net sink’) in forest land and in Harvested Wood Products (HWPs), and using wood to substitute other materials or fossil fuels. 2. Reducing the harvest appears the easiest op...

• Key message Natural disturbances and management are key drivers for forest carbon balance. We modelled the impact of Vaia storm on forest sink at national scale in Italy. We demonstrate that after Vaia, carbon fluxes among pools and through harvested wood products from salvage logging limit the carbon losses. Our findings can improve the effectiv...

This report focuses on the second task of the Administrative Arrangement ESTAT-2019-0300 signed between DG ESTAT and DG JRC. This agreement aims to develop a method to gap-fill the data reported on Table A2a, as provided by the European Forest Accounts (EFA) of EUROSTAT, and gap-fill this table for the period of 2000–2019. This task also includes a...

Reliable quantification of the sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), including that of their trends and uncertainties, is essential to monitoring the progress in mitigating anthropogenic emissions under the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of estimates for all anthropogenic and na...

Forest biomass is a relevant source of energy and material for the European bioeconomy. The present report provides an overview of existing forest biomass data in Europe, describes the methodologies used to harmonize and compare them, and proposes an improved biomass map consistent with the forest inventory data. The biomass data provided by the...

This study adds to the scientific literature dealing with the climate change mitigation implications of wood substitution. Its main scientific contribution rests with the modelling approach. By fully integrating forest resource and wood-product markets modelling in quantitative scenario analysis, we account for international trade in wood products...

Regulation (EU) 2018/8411 (‘LULUCF regulation’) sets the accounting rules for the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector in the EU for 2021–2030, i.e. how the emissions and removals of greenhouse gases from LULUCF will be counted towards the climate targets2. The LULUCF regulation is part of the EU’s commitment to reduce overall emi...

Forests provide a series of ecosystem services that are crucial to our society. In the European Union (EU), forests account for approximately 38% of the total land surface1. These forests are important carbon sinks, and their conservation efforts are vital for the EU’s vision of achieving climate neutrality by 20502. However, the increasing demand...

Emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and removals from land, including both anthropogenic and natural fluxes, require reliable quantification, including estimates of uncertainties, to support credible mitigation action under the Paris Agreement. This study provides a state-of-the-art scientific overview of bottom-up anthropogenic emissions data from...

Abstract A recent article by Luyssaert et al. (Nature 562:259–262, 2018) analyses the climate impact of forest management in the European Union, considering both biogeochemical (i.e., greenhouse gases, GHG) and biophysical (e.g., albedo, transpiration, etc.) effects. Based on their findings, i.e. that additional net overall climate benefits from fo...

25 Emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and removals from land, including both anthropogenic and natural fluxes, require reliable quantification, along with estimates of their inherent uncertainties, in order to support credible mitigation action under the Paris Agreement. This study provides a state-of-the-art scientific overview of bottom-up anthro...

Data on the potential generation of energy from wind, solar and biomass is crucial for analysing their development , as it sets the limits on how much additional capacity it is feasible to install. This paper presents the methodologies used for the development of ENSPRESO, ENergy System Potentials for Renewable Energy SOurces, an EU-28 wide, open d...

Annual Wood Resource Balance (WRB) sheets for all EU Member States and for the European Union as a whole are now available for the years from 2009 to 2015 on the European Commission's Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy web portal at: https://ec.europa.eu/knowledge4policy/publicati on/wood-resource-balances. This technical brief provides a description...

HIGHLIGHTS § The forest-based bioeconomy of the BIOEAST region has a strong resource base § Harvesting intensity has increased along the time series analysed (2000 to 2015) § Forest industry use of wood in the BIOEAST region has grown much faster than that for the EU as a whole in the period analysed (2009 to 2015) § Energy use of wood in the BIOEA...

The new EU LULUCF regulation: challenges and opportunities for the Italian forest sector The entry into force of the new Italian national forest law was followed by the recent approval of the new European regulation 2018/841 on the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from land use, land use change and forest (the so called LULUCF sector) in...

Key message The purpose of this report is to increase the transparency of applications of the CBM-CFS3 model by climate-related policy-makers and researchers. The report provides explicit information on the parametrization of a new Archive Index Database used with this model to simulate forest carbon dynamics in 26 EU countries. The database can be...

A recent paper by Kallio et al. (2018) attempts to assess economic impacts that could result from the implementation of the “Forest Reference Level” (FRL) approach included in the recently approved EU LULUCF Regulation. FRLs are country-projected baselines of net emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from forests, against which the future net emissio...

Background: The credibility and effectiveness of country climate targets under the Paris Agreement requires that, in all greenhouse gas (GHG) sectors, the accounted mitigation outcomes reflect genuine deviations from the type and magnitude of activities generating emissions in the base year or baseline. This is challenging for the forestry sector,...

Forests are at the intersection of European policies on climate, energy and environmental protection and will contribute significantly to the shift of the European economy towards a greater and more sustainable use of renewable resources. Knowledge of the current and future provision and use of woody biomass is necessary to support multiple policie...

A comprehensive assessment of European forest-based biomass harvest potentials , their future utilization and implications on international wood product markets and forest carbon dynamics requires the capability to model forest resource development as well as global markets for wood-based commodities with sufficient geographical and product detail...

This report illustrates part of the results from the first two years of JRC biomass study, carried out in the context of the mandate on the provision to EC services of data and analysis on biomass flow, supply and demand on a long-term basis.

The history of man has been linked to the history of wood since prehistoric times and because the forest is the main place where this resource is available, forest spaces are also directly linked to the evolution of human society. The objective of this paper is to analyze the historical evolution of the functions assigned by humans to forests, high...

In July 2016, the Commission adopted a legal proposal (COM(2016) 479) for the inclusion of Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) in the EU 2030 energy and climate targets. In this proposal, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals from Managed Forest Land in EU Member States will be accounted using the concept of Forest Reference Level...

Many countries have developed their own systems for projecting forest resources and wood availability. Although studies using these tools are helpful for developing national policies, they do not provide a consistent assessment for larger regions such as the European Union or Europe as a whole. Individual national-scale studies differ considerably...

The comprehensive analysis of carbon stocks and fluxes of managed European forests is a prerequisite to quantify their role in biomass production and climate change mitigation. We applied the Carbon Budget Model (CBM) to 26 European countries, parameterized with country information on the historical forest age structure, management practices, harve...

The report is organised in four sections addressing respectively forestry, agriculture, fisheries & aquaculture, and algae. The reported data is centred on 2013. Total weight is generally expressed as a million tonnes (109 kg or Mt) of dry weight for the forestry and agricultural sector. In addition, for the fisheries and aquaculture, and algae sec...

The comprehensive analysis of carbon stocks and fluxes of managed European forests is a prerequisite to quantify their role in biomass production and climate change mitigation. We applied the Carbon Budget Model (CBM) to 26 European (EU) countries, parameterized with country information on the historical forest age structure, management practices,...

Background: Forests and the forest sector may play an important role in mitigating climate change. The Paris Agreement and the recent legislative proposal to include the land use sector in the EU 2030 climate targets reflect this expectation. However, greater confidence on estimates from national greenhouse gas inventories (GHGI) and more comprehe...

Abstract Background According to the post-2012 rules under the Kyoto protocol, developed countries that are signatories to the protocol have to estimate and report the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals from forest management (FM), with the option to exclude the emissions associated to natural disturbances, following the Intergovernmental...

Background: The new rules for the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector under the Kyoto Protocol recognized the importance of Harvested Wood Products (HWP) in climate change mitigation. We used the Tier 2 method proposed in the 2013 IPCC KP Supplement to estimate emissions and removals from HWP from 1990 to 2030 in EU-28 countries with thr...

This paper describes the conceptual design of a regional modelling framework to assess scenarios for the forest-based bioeconomy. The framework consists of a core set of tools: a partial equilibrium model for the forest sector, a forestry dynamics model for forest growth and harvest and a wood resources balance sheet. The framework can be expanded...

In the context of the Kyoto Protocol, the mandatory accounting of Afforestation and Reforestation (AR) activities requires estimating the forest carbon (C) stock changes for any direct human-induced expansion of forest since 1990. We used the Carbon Budget Model (CBM) to estimate C stock changes and emissions from fires on AR lands at country level...

The main purpose of this document is twofold. On the one hand, the land demands, methods and preliminary findings, especially in terms of forest and agricultural land, for the production of food, feed and energy are fully described. The modelling exercise is developed for the Updated Reference Configuration 2014 of the LUISA (Land Use Integrated Su...

: Historical analysis and modeling of the forest carbon dynamics using the Carbon Budget Model: an example for the Trento Province (NE, Italy). The Carbon Budget Model (CBM-CFS3) developed by the Canadian Forest Service was applied to data collected by the last Italian National Forest Inventory (INFC) for the Trento Province (NE, Italy). CBM was mo...

The estimation of past and future forest carbon (C) dynamics in European countries is a challenging task due to complex and varying silvicultural systems, including uneven-aged forest management, and incomplete inventory data time series. In this study, we tested the use of the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) in Italy,...

Annex I Parties may receive credits or debits from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) activities, contributing to achieving individual emission reduction targets. In the Durban climate negotiations, Parties agreed new LULUCF accounting rules for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (CP2). By using these new rules, this pa...

National Forest Inventories (NFIs) provide quantitative information on forest area, volume, growing stock and composition at national level but in most cases these data cannot be directly linked with geographical or climatic data sources, such as temperature and precipitation. Assuming that NFIs represent the most useful source of data to evaluate...

The possibility of estimating young trees biomass is rather limited because forest yield tables are constructed starting from higher thresholds of proxy, such as diameter or height, and lack of availability of allometric equations. The aim of this study is to provide species-specific and general biomass equations for young plants often used for pla...

The future agreements on the LULUCF sector will probably implement the role of harvest wood products (HWP) for climate change mitigation. As highlighted by many Authors however, for Italy to quantify the amount of HWP will impose a number of issues mainly related to the inconsistency of the data provided by the National Institute for Statistic (IST...

After the chaotic final days of the Copenhagen climate conference, many saw only fog, i.e., an unclear outcome and much uncertainty on future steps to take. Were the forests lost in this fog or some tree is still visible, possibly suggesting a path to take? This commentary will briefly analyse the outcome of the Copenhagen conference with respect t...

In this study, we analyzed the variation of forest land cover in a mountain area of Veneto Region in northeast Italy. The analysis was done by comparing orthorectified aerial photographs taken in 1991 with orthophotos dated 2003, using photo interpretation of points with casual distribution on sample areas, according to a stratified sampling. The s...

The carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems of China. A comment is made on a recent letter published on Nature, in which different methodologies are applied to estimate the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosy- stems of China. A global carbon sink of 0.19-0.26 Pg per year is estimated during the 1980s and 1990s, and it is estimated that in 2006 ter...

According to art. 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol (KP), Italy has elected forest management as additional human-induced activity to attain the goal of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The whole forest area not subjected to afforestation, reforestation or deforestation processes since 1990 will be considered as managed forest. In order to analyse di...

"Variation of forest surface and carbon fixation in mountain areas of the Regione Veneto (Italy) and the application of the Kyoto protocol. The Parties that have signed the Kyoto Protocol must reduce global emissions of Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) during the First Commitment Period (2008 - 2012) by at least 5% with respect to 1990. This share is 6.5% f...

The Parties that have signed the Kyoto Protocol must reduce global emissions of Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) during the First Commitment Period (2008 - 2012) by at least 5% with respect to 1990. This share is 6.5% for Italy. The Kyoto Protocol lays down some measures for reducing GHG emissions, which include actions in agriculture and forestry. it will...

According to art. 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol, Parties included in Annex I shall report the net changes in greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks resulting from afforestation, reforestation and deforestation activities. To assess these activities, Italy has to define methods to estimate land use change occurring after 31 December 1...

Methodological approach to develop a a yield table for the aboveground biomass in a young beech high forest.

Aboveground tree biomass (M) can be estimated using a power function in the form of M = aDb where a and b are the scaling coefficient and scaling exponent, respectively, and D the tree breast-height diameter. Both a and b are reported to vary with species, site and age. However West et al. [West, G.B., Brown, J.H., Enquist, B.J., 1999. A general mo...

"Deforestation in the tropics: after the exclusion from Clean Development Mechanisms new opportunities for the Kyoto protocol. The 11th Conference of Parties (Montreal 2005) has favoured initiatives for reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries. This issue was discussed at a workshop, organised in Bad Blumau (Austria, 10-12 May...

The 11^th Conference of Parties (Montreal 2005) has favoured initiatives for reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries. This issue was discussed at a workshop, organised in Bad Blumau (Austria, 10-12 May 2006) to provide a timely forum for assessment of different methodological and policy approaches. This paper reports...

According to art. 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol, Italy, like other Parties included in Annex I, shall report the net changes in greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks resulting from afforestation, reforestation and deforestation activities (ARD). To evaluate these activities, Italy has to elaborate methods to estimate the conversion...

Parties included in Annex I of the Kyoto Protocol, like Italy, may choose to elect Forest Management as additional human-induced activity to attain the goals of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In Italy the majority of areas subjected to forest plans satisfy the definition of Forest Management proposed by the Marakesh Accords. However, the da...

The estimation of stem number per hectare is one of the more interesting applications of the so-called «anglecount sampling». Many authors have described theoretical and practical aspects, but an analysis of the error related to diameter distribution reconstruction is lacking. The objective of this work was to test this error in high forests by usi...

Abstract The aims of this study were: to devise an easy method for the evaluation of the differences in the diet between two or more samples of fox scats collected along transects; to elucidate seasonal and local variations in the consumption of mammals. The study area (2000 ha) is located in the Prealps of the province of Belluno (municipality of...