Dead wood in forests is a critical component of biodiversity, carbon and nutrient cycles, stand structure, and fuel loadings. Until recently, very few countries have conducted systematic inventories of dead wood resources across their forest lands. This may be changing as an increasing number of countries implement dead wood inventories. A recent survey looks at the status and attributes of forest dead wood inventories in over 60 countries. About 13 percent of countries inventory dead wood globally and most of these countries have initiated large-scale inventories of forest dead wood only recently (< 10 years). Given the growing importance of forest dead wood resources to many countries, globally harmonizing dead wood inventories helps everyone reach a common language in an era of climate change.