Webinar – Monitoring Forest Biodiversity Potential with the Forest Biodiversity Index (FOBI)

In response to the global biodiversity crisis, a range of targets and commitments have been established to guide efforts in protecting and enhancing forest biodiversity. Yet, many landowners and forest managers still lack the tools and information needed to demonstrate progress and support their management decisions.

One of the key challenges in biodiversity monitoring is identifying indicators that are scalable, repeatable, and easy to interpret—while still reflecting the complex, multi-dimensional nature of biodiversity. To address this, Forest Research (FR), Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), and Forestry England (FE) have co-developed The FOrest Biodiversity Index (FOBI).

FOBI offers a transparent, quantitative, and repeatable method for assessing the biodiversity potential of forests. It uses a suite of biodiversity proxies that describe the structure and composition of woodlands and their surrounding landscapes – such as tree age diversity, open habitat cover, and landscape connectivity.

In this webinar, we’ll share insights from applying FOBI across state-owned forests in England and Scotland, demonstrating how it can inform decisions at multiple scales—from local forest management to national biodiversity reporting.

We’ll also explore how FOBI can be applied to privately owned forests using survey and remote sensing data, highlighting its potential use for monitoring forest biodiversity potential across all forests in Britain.

There will be time for Q&A at the end of the session.