Next steps

A few pointers.

1. A carbon module in TEMS should be created containing metadata and links to data, institutes, research stations, and manuals which are relevant to scientists and policy makers working the fields of carbon studies.

2. The methodology (variable) sheets in the TEMS are incomplete for carbon studies. Experts in the field should be asked to identify the key new sheets that need to be created and assist in developing these sheets.

3. TEMS usually only contains research sites which are currently still active in gathering data. Certain inactive sites should still be included in the carbon module as they have archives of historical data sets which are relevant to carbon studies. Scientists should be encouraged to provide details of any site of institute involved in carbon measurements.

4. To encourage standardization of methods a manual should be developed containing greed-upon procedures on gathering, managing and processing carbon data. A workshop on standardization of methods should be held with Russian and western and eastern European scientists to establish the standard methodologies to be used.

5. Provide free and easy access of map layers of the CEE region through the FAO Geonetwork system.

6. A large number of important historical archives which are relevant to carbon monitoring are not available to general users as they are in a paper format. Projects should be initiated to convert these valuable archives into digital formats. Some countries (e.g. Ukraine) also have large historical archives of aerial photo which can be used with recent satellite and ground based measurements.

7. When gathering data TCO should concentrate on obtaining data needed for models. For example, soil data maps are very important but what is obtained is nearly always of low quality.

8. FAO should determine the precise correlation between forestry terms and ecological terms. There seems to be incompatibility between the two types.

9. The coordination system used for electronic maps in the CEE area is often incompatible with western European standards. It is important to review how different countries process their data and see the compatibility between these methods. There is a need to determine the preferred scale that data should be gathered and processed.