Hanne K. Sjølie, Brett J. Butler, Francisco X. Aguilar, Isabella Hallberg-Sramek, Veera Tahvanainen, Anniina Kietäväinen, Matti Maltamo, Silvia M. Korth, Dohun Kim, Lucas Nahuel Lopez, Ane C. Tange, Lisa Ockier. (2026). A call for improving forest socioeconomic data with inspiration from national forest inventories. Silva Fennica vol. 60 no. 1 article id 26001. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.26001

Keywords: biophysical information; data integration; forest ownership survey; forest product survey

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National forest inventories have long and strong traditions in many countries and they can offer a wealth of information about the biophysical aspects of forests such as tree growth, carbon fluxes and biodiversity. However, these are in most cases not paralleled by data representing the socioeconomic dimensions of forests. Integration of socioeconomic and biophysical data has the potential to better unveil interactions between human and natural resources and can therefore better support policy. Climate change has multiple impacts on forest resources. Policies to support sustainable forestry, the bioeconomy, and climate change mitigation and adaptation are constantly developing. At the same time, forest owners’ attitudes and forest markets are evolving. More data is needed to advance the understanding of the links between the human and biophysical factors and the relationship between these factors and the complex objectives of forests. We compared the national forest inventories, national forest owner surveys, and national forest product surveys across Argentina, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the USA. The national forest inventories in all selected countries are built on solid methodological grounds and have strong institutional support and funding. However, the consistency of methods, frequency of implementation, and institutional support for forest owner and forest product surveys are in many cases lacking. There is also a lack of integration between biophysical and socioeconomic data. The USA was the only studied country with integrated biophysical and socioeconomic data. We suggest that this approach reflects the needs of data integration and can serve as a reference for other countries.

Sjølie, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Inland Norway, Elverum, Norway https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8099-3521 E-mail: hanne.sjolie@inn.no
Butler, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Amherst, MA, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2465-7993 E-mail: –
Aguilar, Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0226-4467 E-mail: francisco.aguilar@slu.se
Hallberg-Sramek, Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Umeå, Sweden https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9645-9208 E-mail: isabella.hallberg.sramek@slu.se
Tahvanainen, School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4527-992X E-mail: –
Kietäväinen, Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9435-1519 E-mail: anniina.kietavainen@slu.se
Maltamo, School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9904-3371 E-mail: matti.maltamo@uef.fi
Korth, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3261-8234 E-mail: –
Kim, Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1919-3346 E-mail: dohun.kim@slu.se
Lopez, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Inland Norway, Elverum, Norway https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6860-3408 E-mail: lucas.lopez@inn.no
Tange, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Inland Norway, Elverum, Norway; Glommen-Mjøsen Skog SA, Elverum, Norway https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3145-8159 E-mail: –
Ockier, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina E-mail: lisa@ockier.de

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