Overview Brazil

Brazil, being the second most forested country in the world with almost half a million hectares of forest, has an outspoken and strong need for strategic information on its forestry resources in order to elaborate effective national policies and evaluate their outcomes. However, despite its strong forestry vocation, Brazil still lacks a functional mechanism to generate needed information. The latest and only nationwide forest inventory in Brazil was conducted in the early 1980’s and the information requirements have since then continuously increased and evolved.

The Brazilian Ministry of Environment has initiated the process to establish a national-wide forest monitoring system based on national forest inventories including systematic field data collection and remote sensing surveys, and the Brazilian Forest Service (Serviço Florestal Brasileiro, SFB), created in 2006, is responsible for organizing and implementing the Brazilian National Forest Inventory (NFI). The field inventory will be carried out along a systematic sample grid of clustered plots every 0,18 degrees (10,8 minutes) latitude and longitude, which corresponds to a distance of 20km by 20km at the equator.

In 2005 a multi-institutional Technical Committee (CT-IFN/BR) was formed by Brazilian and international specialists from governmental institutions, research stations, universities and the civil society to initiate the development of a Brazilian NFI based on systematic sampling for field data collection and remotely sensed landscape mapping. SFB has since then run a testing programme to organize pilot field tests of the methodology in different parts of the country in order to validate and improve its applicability in the country’s great variety of ecosystems and biomes (Amazônia, Caatinga, Cerrado, Mata Atlântica, Pampa and Pantanal. The preparations for Brazil’s first national forest inventory (NFI) has been on its way for a few years and a first field test of methodology for data collection was carried out in the Amazônia biome in November 2007, followed by the Caatinga and Cerrado biomes in 2009.

NFA Documents

Planning

TCP - Establishing Methodological Basis and Building Partnerships for Brazil’s National Forest Resources Inventory 

Additional Material

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• News clippings on National Forest Inventory - January 2013 
• Inventário Florestal Nacional receberá investimentos [7-August-2012]
• Florestas do Rio Grande do Sul serão incluídas em inventário nacional [19-October-2012]
• Forests of Brazil: Strengthening public policies by using accurate and updated information on forest resources - a way forward [from GEF Website]

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News

NFI Brazil - Santa Caterina State: results published 10 April 2013 Results from the Inventário Florístico Florestal de Santa Catarina are now available on line for download (four volumes). Follow the link to read more about the project's objectives, methodology and results. [more]

NFI field activities launched in the state of Paraná, Brazil 12 March 2013 News on the launch of the fieldwork for the Brazilan NFI in the state of Paraná - from the web site of the Serviço Florestal Brasileiro [article in Portuguese] [more]

News clippings on Inventário Florestal Nacional - Brasil - October 2012 23 October 2012 A collection of news on the Brasil National Forest Inventory - by the Serviço Florestal Brasileiro. [more]

FAO mission to Brazil for the IFN Project 7 September 2012 O Serviço Florestal Brasileiro recebeu entre os dias 22 e 28 de agosto um grupo de especialistas da Organização das Nações Unidas para Agricultura e Alimentação (FAO) sediados na Itália e no Brasil. [more]

NFMA and the Brazilian Forest Service join forces for GEF's project on the Sustainable Management of Brazil´s Forest Resources 20 July 2011 GEF announced the successful launch of the project “Strengthening National Policy and Knowledge Framework in Support of Sustainable Management of Brazil´s Forest Resources”. This project aims to provide good quality information and analysis on forest resources and land use to improve policies and decision making by stakeholders so as to increase Brazilian forests contribution to national sustainable development. The initiative is designed as a five-year project, mainly to provide technical assistance to develop the core capacities and support the implementation of the NFM&AS. It will be executed with FAO as implementing agency and the Brazilian Forest Service (BFS) as the primary executing partner. [more]