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III. RECOMMENDATIONS

3.1. Directed to Participating Countries

· Make available to FAO (Forest Resources Division, Rome) up-to-date documentation on the status of forest resources, and provide the most recent information of forest resources in the suggested format;

· Introduce or improve existing systems for the monitoring and reporting of forest fires and their impacts, both inside and outside protected areas;

· Develop a cost-effective methodology, involving all relevant partners (NGOs, private sector, etc.), for the resource assessment of "trees outside the forest" in cases where they are of socio-economic significance;

· Carry out periodic surveys of fuelwood and charcoal consumption in order to monitor trends in usage and supply sources;

· Use the standard international classification (SITC Rev.3) when reporting forestry product statistics;

· Encourage the collection and dissemination of price data and other market information for forest products, especially to rural suppliers;

· Collect data on production capacities of forest based industries to assist planning of supplies;

· Appoint an "FAO focal point" for effective communication with FAO on forestry sector data and information;

· Undertake to maintain functioning forestry statistical units capable of meeting national and international obligations.

3.2. Recommendations Directed to FAO

· Accept existing country forest cover classification for the purpose of FRA 2000, while embarking on process of harmonisation towards a standard classification applicable to the sub-region;

· Source data concerning non-forest species through its appropriate channels to the relevant departments or ministries;

· Embark on a process of harmonisation of data collection procedures for the production and consumption of fuelwood and charcoal;

· Support studies for deriving more improved and more realistic conversion factors for charcoal, sawtimber, etc.;

· Encourage the collection and dissemination of price data and other market information at regional and sub-regional level;

· Endeavour to seek donor funding to support data collection initiatives and in national capacity building in information technology in the sub-region; in particular, in providing e-mail, internet access and training in database management;

· Improve the distribution of its information and data for the forest sector within the individual countries;

· Encourage the creation of information exchange networks among countries at sub-regional level involving collaboration between governments, NGOs and other relevant partners/stakeholders.

3.3. Recommendations for future workshops

· Special attention should be given to the finalisation of the workshop preparation. It is important to have an officer available to dedicate one full week to handle of the following points :

· Reviewed workshop agenda to allow additional time for analysis in the parallel session discussions of the main working topics and make an in-depth revision of existing data and data-sources. These meetings have been usually organised before dinner (6 - 8 PM) or breakfast (7 - 8 am) in Nakuru.

· All relevant documents and data on forestry sectors have not been given by some participating countries, therefore it is important to clearly establish a defined channel for receiving and reviewing new documents. It is important to strengthen contacts with participating countries immediately after the workshop to schedule the following actions within approximately 2 months:

· Stress the importance of establishing a permanent forestry contact person for supporting data collection, analysis, and dissemination, during the working sessions. The contact person should have a clearly defined role in distributing information with other national and international institutions. The contact persons could act as promoter of networks and organisations, both in the governmental and private sectors, for collecting and disseminating, at the national level, essential data which are not yet commonly available. Where required, some support should be provided in order to encourage the dissemination of country data within each country.

· The need to establish an internationally recognised classification system of forests, although there are many difficulties in trying to apply a standardised classification system at this stage. It is suggested to record and document each country's classification systems and establish continuous information flow to reach an agreement in the future.

· Increase the attention to the main topics of the workshop. Emphasise the need to maintain reliable core data on forest resources and products for national forest policy planning and the need to acquire additional information on other environmental and socio-economical aspects for establishing sustainable management of trees and forests.

· Distribution of list of FAO publications and possibly some samples of them.

· The participation and attendance of the private sector should be encouraged to establish proper dialogue concerning sustainable forest management.

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