Analysis of foreign experience in national forest inventories: methods, sampling, results and international statistics

The article conducts analysis of foreign experience in national forest inventories (NFI), in particular: principles, sampling procedures, data collecting on sample plots, methods of interpreting primary information and reporting, using the results for strategic planning of wood production and national forest policy and also for sustainable forest management. Foreign experience is considered in detail on example of countries with predominantly boreal and temperate forests: the USA, Canada, EU-Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden and Finland) and the Czech Republic. The new trends in the elaboration of national forest inventories are associated with a change in strategy, complementing the measured and assessed indicators, integration with monitoring system, harmonization of the terminology and methods of maintenance, improvement of the technology, and adaptation to the requirements of mandatory and voluntary forestry reporting in international processes.