Michael Khl is Professor of World Forestry at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and head of the Institute for World Forestry, at the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products. His main research interests are in the field of quantitative methods for natural resources assessments and forest planning, including statistical design and analysis of complex sample surveys, remote sensing, information systems and GIS. He has authored more than 150 scientific papers. He was former leader of IUFROs S4.02 "Forest Resources Inventory and Monitoring," leader of the Team of Specialists for