Andorra Research + Innovation and Forest Science and Technology Center of Catalonia publish First National Forestry Inventory of Andorra; reports include measurements of 194 plots throughout forest area, estimates of country's sink capacity

Andorra Research + Innovation and the Forest Science and Technology Center of Catalonia published two reports and a database bringing together the results of the 1st National Forestry Inventory of Andorra (INF1-AND)

(1) The publicly published database (BD-INF1-AND) includes the measurements carried out in the 194 plots distributed throughout the forest area of ​​Andorra.

(2) The analysis of the database resulting from the National Forestry Inventory makes it possible to update the estimate of the country's sink capacity.

The INF1-AND represents a comprehensive and standardized data collection of all Andorran forests with the aim of monitoring their state in the long term. The first of the published reports describes the inventory protocol, comprehensively presenting the methodology for establishing and monitoring the network of permanent plots. This includes access to the database (BD-INF1-AND), which brings together the information collected in the 194 plots and measured during the field work carried out in the summer of 2022.

In conjunction with the database, Andorra Research + Innovation provides the public with a spatial visualization tool (refer to the figure above). This tool enables interactive access and exploration of a subset of the collected data from the plots, including information on more than 9000 measured trees.

The second of the published reports quantifies the carbon currently stored in Andorra's forests and its sink capacity (carbon annual fixation rate). The general methodology is based on using data from the BD-INF1-AND, including information on trees, shrubs, standing and ground dead wood, combined with available allometries and models derived from studies on similar forest types in nearby areas, primarly from research conducted in the Catalan Pyrenees.

This study has made it possible to update the estimate of the country's sink capacity, a key element in meeting Andorra's climate objectives. In this sense, the realization of the 1st National Forest Inventory of Andorra has received funding from the Office of Energy and Climate Change of Andorra (Andorran Government) in the framework of the study of impacts and vulnerabilities of climate change and the sink capacity of Andorra.