Forest recreation monitoring - a European perspective

COST Action E33 Forest for recreation and nature tourism (FORREC) is a network of researchers and practitioners working in the field from all around Europe. The work was devided into three working groups. The aim of Working Group 2 (WG2) was to evaluate the state of the art of the present information basis for recreation in European countries. This report is an output of WG2. The focus of WG2 was on recreation monitoring, i.e. the information basis developed continuously and systematically to offer a national, regional or site-specific coverage of information, and information on changes over time. Recreation monitoring provides the information base for planning and management to achieve equal opportunities for close-to home outdoor recreation across Europe and among different social groups within individual countries. Information on recreational opportunities and capacity is essential for successful and sustainable nature tourism. Thus, the European Union needs comparable and consistent information on the recreational opportunities and on the demand for outdoor recreation and nature tourism within European countries. COST E33 WG2 recommends actions for developing better recreation information basis. These actions include recommendations for individual countries to produce recreation information which is comparable between regions and between countries, and which is consistent over time. Secondly, recreation information is needed to feed into indicators and standards for proactive planning for sustainable forestry, for allocation of resources and funding, and for successful management of forest resources in general. Thirdly, in order to achieve the goal of producing comparable recreation information across Europe, actions are needed to develop an advanced, harmonised methodology for a standardised approach. A standardised outdoor recreation monitoring programme at a European level is highly recommended.