Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1696/87 laying down certain detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3528/86 on the protection of the Community's forests against atmospheric pollution (inventories, network, reports).

This Regulation makes provision with a view to properly implementing Regulation (EEC) No. 3528/86, taking into particular account the elaboration of inventories and reports intended to protect forests against atmospheric pollution. A periodic inventory of damage caused to forests in particular by atmospheric pollution shall be established on the basis of a Community network of observation points as per article 1. Observations shall be carried out at each point on trees chosen following an objective sampling procedure. An evaluation of the state of health of the trees observed shall be made on the basis of specified criteria. By 15 December each year, Member States shall forward to the Commission in a standardized form the data collected for each of the observation points of the Community network. Technical details pertaining to the provisions of these provisions are set out in Annex I hereto, which deals with common methods for the establishment of a periodic inventory of damage caused to forests. The Member States' reports on forest health shall be drawn up annually, in particular, on the basis of data from the Community network of observation points and from any other representative network at national or regional level in respect of which the methodology specified in Annex I is applied. The content of the reports shall comply with the requirements set out in Annex III. Reports shall be forwarded to the Commission each year by 15 January.