The European Forest Information System-an Internet based interface between information providers and the user community

Improving access to forestry information is an important component in addressing the implementation of national and international commitments towards sustainable forest management, climate change and biological diversity. A demonstrator of a European Forest Information System (EFIS) has been developed within the framework of the EU regulation (EEC) No. 1615/89 on establishing a European Forest Information and Communication System (EFICS). EFIS includes elements that allow: (a) searching of metadata catalogues (Resource Discovery), and (b) importing of identified data for exploratory data analysis (Visualisation Toolkit). The authors describe the set-up of EFIS and its functionality by presenting two examples of possible uses of the system. They also discuss the steps necessary for the development of the demonstrator into an operational component within an EFICS.