Introduction and background

A major output of the third steering committee meeting of the EC-FAO Partnership Programme, which was held from 22 to 24 January 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was agreement on the need to establish a network of forestry statistical correspondents. The main objectives of the network are to strengthen communication between FAO and member countries; to discuss common problems and share information management and techniques; to build national capacity and to strengthen national and regional statistics.

Workshop objectives and expected outcomes

The workshop had the dual purpose of serving as training on forest product statistics and as a forum for discussing the national and regional status of current forest product statistics.

The objectives were:

To establish the network/working group of statistical correspondents in the 13 member countries of the EC-FAO Partnership Programme.
To provide training on standardized international definitions and tabular formats for completing the Joint Forest Sector Questionnaire (JFSQ).
To review current forest product statistics at national and regional levels.
To identify the main weaknesses and constraints concerning forest statistics and to develop a set of alternative frameworks for improving national statistical processes.
To encourage information sharing among countries and with international organizations.

The workshop was designed to realize:

The establishment of a network of national statistical correspondents.
The dissemination of information on international statistics and the JFSQ for statistical correspondents.
Discussion on the status and constraints of current national and regional forestry statistics.
Mutual agreement on sustainable cooperation among the participating countries, and between international organizations (FAO, ITTO) and their member countries via the established network of national statistical correspondents.

Workshop organization and participation

The workshop was organized and facilitated by four FAO staff members (Mr F. Padovani, Ms Qiang Ma, Mr T. Enters and Ms P. Chuntaketta) in close cooperation with Mr S. Johnson from the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).

The 28 participants numbered statistical correspondents from all the 13 member countries, policy and planning officials, representatives from the private sector and resource persons (Appendix 1).