THE European Commission proposes establishing a forest monitoring system that would use satellites to identify hazards as climate change increases forest fires and fuels illegal logging.

Climate change is affecting its forests Europe, as extreme high temperatures and drought increase the risk of devastating wildfires. About 9,000 square kilometers of European Union land were burned by forest fires last year, an area the size of Corsica, according to EU figures.

The destruction of Europe’s forests reduces the capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, which is necessary to meet climate targets and protect surrounding areas from flooding.

Today, the Commission proposed a law that would allow Brussels to gather data from the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel satellites. EU member states will also be required to collect spatial measurements of trends including areas available for logging, the volume of trees and the location of primary forests.

“We need to see these trends, we need better forecasting, we need to see how they respond to climate change,” said the European commissioner Virginius Cinquevicius.

“Currently there are no comprehensive monitoring requirements that give an overall picture of the state of our forests,” he said.

The new data may also help identify other risks, such as illegal logging, across national borders, the European commissioner said.

The European Union has come into conflict with countries such as Poland on the subject. The European Court of Justice ruled in March that Poland’s policy of issuing logging permits during the birds’ breeding seasons violates the Union’s environmental laws. The European Court of Justice also condemned in 2018 Warsaw’s logging permit in its primeval forest Białowieża.

The non-government organization Fern welcomed the proposal “as a potential golden opportunity” to provide data needed to protect Europe’s forests. However, it calls for the law to be extended to force European countries to take action to improve forest health.