Forest Inventories Generate Scientifically Sound Information on the Forest Resource, But Do Our Data and Information Really Matter?

Current research in forest inventoryfocuses very much on technical-statistical problems geared mainly to the optimization of data collection and information generation. The basic assumption is that better information leads to better decisions and, therefore, to better forest managementand forest policy. Not many studies, however, strive to explic- itly establish the relationship between information qualityand decision quality. In this article, we discuss this issue and suggest that forest inventoryresearch should include more studies on the immediate and indirect effectsof results and findings of forest inventories.