The future of forest terminology : between tradition and innovation

Abstract

The choice and use of appropriate and consistent terms and definitions are central to effective communication in science, management, and policy. The network of IUFRO experts has worked with various levels of forest terminology since its beginning and it has released several publications on terminology over the years, most recently in 2016. Some of the concepts and glossaries are available online, but mainly as static pdf-files or separate databases, such as SilvaTerm or the Global Forest Decimal Classification. Now it is time to start bringing these vast sources of information into the new millenium. More and more data are provided online and as linked online data. The content descriptions and metadata of these datasets should be (inter)linked as well. We suggest that the terminologies published by IUFRO should be linked or combined into a Forest Ontology. This ontology should have permanent identifiers for its concepts and these should be linked to other related online services and their concepts (such as AgroVoc). The ontology should be provided as a service which has Application Profile Interfaces which provide access and tools for linking or using the concepts and the multilingual terms connected to the concepts while creating descriptions to any forest related content online.