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Introduction

Forest inventory is to collect information needed for management planning or policy development, or to follow up the implementation of such plans or policies. Information requirements are set from management objectives and feedback from previous experiences (Figure 1). Commonly, the logical chain of activities in Figure 1 is interrupted, for example as forest inventories are designed without well investigating the information requirements, or as outputs from information analysis are not accurately considered in policy formulations.

The Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000), carried out by FAO and its partners, concluded that national information on forests and forestry are low in quality and relevance for many countries, despite the considerable attention that the sector has had over the past decades. To assist countries in their national forestry programmes, and to improve the international information quality, the Global Forest Survey (GFS) is being developed by the Forestry Department of FAO (FAO 2000). Objectives of the GFS are:

1. National capacity building for sustainable forest management;

2. Forestry knowledge management for international processes.

The GFS is a field based systematic forest inventory that intends to collect relevant forest and forestry information on a country-by-country basis. The data to be collected should refer to the needs specified in the development of sustainable forest management concepts. Essentially, this means collecting data on biophysical properties of the forest, the management and use of the forest, and various socio-economic parameters affecting forests and forestry.

The current paper is a first attempt of a detailed specification of the core field variables. It also briefly explains the statistical design of the GFS. Note that the core variables can be extended (but not modified) with country-specific variables to better fit national needs. Also note that the statistical design can be modified to fit with national requirements or with existing national surveys.

Figure 1. Forestry knowledge management. The figure can be applied at local, national or international levels. The outer line indicates the activities of the Global Forest Survey.


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