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International agreements such as the Kyoto protocol and Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), as well as, criteria and indicator processes require reports on the status of nations' forests. Any comparison of the current status and trends of forest resources among nations presumes that the nations' applied definitions and concepts produce comparable estimates of the status of forests. In spite of this, the FAO has already collected global information for 60 years and made noticeable efforts in creating common definitions, but forest related data are still collected using diverse definitions, even regarding basic concepts such as forest and forest area. A simple consequence is that the crosscountries estimates are not comparable. The reasons behind the differences in the definitions are diverse histories, and sometimes different use of forests. In an ideal case, national forest inventories should fulfil both national and international needs. In addition to the FAO's Forest Resources Assessment process, other efforts are made to assess the status of forests in European countries, e.g. European Forest Information and Communication System (EFICS). EFICS produced reports about forest inventories but does not suggest any common definition or method to convert estimates from one definition to another one. This article presents principles and methods to create commonly acceptable and adoptable definitions for forest inventories. The principles and methods are demonstrated using two examples: the reference definitions of forest and growing stock. The article is based on the work of COST Action E43 (

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At the international level, various definitions have been established for the compilation and publication of forest resources assessment results over the last decade. These international definitions frequently rely on terms that are not precisely specified for inventory purposes and do not completely cover the requirements arising from the application of National Forest Inventory (NFI) data. Also, with respect to conventional topics such as forest area and growing stock estimation, several terms and expressions referring to individual trees are not, or are only vaguely, defined until now. Since the individual tree is the basic element of any forest resources assessment, the clarification of tree-related terms is an important part of COST Action E43 to harmonise common reporting of National Forest Inventories. Based on a review of existing definitions and on the requirements for harmonised reporting, common tree-related definitions are established. One objective of this study is to refine and enhance the applicability of available tree and shrub definitions, in particular with regard to the distinction between trees and shrubs. The study also focuses on the parts or "elements" of trees and on the distinction between these elements as they are of particular importance in growing stock and biomass definitions. Furthermore, several definitions for tree characteristics such as "living" and "standing", as well as tree variables such as height, length, diameter at breast height, and crown projection area are adjusted with respect to NFI purposes. A concluding discussion reflects upon the reviewed, refined and newly established definitions. The definitions presented in this paper provide a firm basis for a common set of harmonised reference definitions developed by COST Action E43 and contribute to the precise and consistent use of terms.