This section briefly summarises the three international outlook studies recently carried out by ECE and FAO, which contain valuable indications, based on objective and transparent analysis of trends to the middle of the twenty-first century in the three main parts of the ECE Region. Given their broad international background, their objective methods and the transparency of their processes, they may be taken as a background or reference for the outlook of the sector as a whole in the ECE Region. All three studies have a reference scenario, and alternative, or policy, scenarios, which describe how the outlook would change in differing circumstances.