Forest news
| 1 February 2012 A new interactive online database provides access to most of the collected information in FAO's comprehensive and most recent Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2010). The main module has options to use multiple output formats and generate simple diagrams, providing easier and more flexible access to FRA data. [more...] |
| 20 January 2012 FAO’s Forestry Department has launched FAO’s first multimedia app, designed to bring its work on forests and forestry to a growing generation of iPhone and iPad users. The ‘FAO Forestry’ App can be downloaded free from the Apple App store and provides users with news, videos, select publications, interactive maps showing world forest statistics, and a quiz, all navigable with a touch-screen wheel. It also includes a ‘donate’ button that takes users to the website of FAO’s TeleFood fundraising programme – which uses public contributions to finance small-scale agriculture, livestock and fisheries projects that help poor families achieve food security. [more...] |
| 20 December 2011 Rome, Italy – The FAO Forestry Department held a closing event for the International Year of Forests 2011 at FAO headquarters for Permanent Representatives, Rome-based Intergovernmental Organizations, external partners, and FAO staff. Showcased prominently at the event was the new publication, Fruit trees and useful plants in Amazonian Life , a joint production of FAO, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and People and Plants International. The event also presented FAO products from the International Year of Forests, including a new global forest cover map, and discussed recent results from the Remote Sensing Survey. Products at the event were complemented by videos, such as one entitled ‘Forests for People’, the theme of the year, and a tribute film to the late Wangari Maathai. [more...] |
| 28 October 2011 FAO’s Community-based Forest Enterprise Development programme has released its new Market Analysis and Development (MA&D) training package. MA&D aims to assist rural people in developing enterprises that generate and improve incomes, while also sustainably using and managing forest and other natural resources. Local people who are most dependent on forest resources are the decision makers throughout the MA&D process, from the planning and financing to the sustainable management and operation of their enterprises. This ownership of the process means that local people also learn how to develop their own business plans, leading in turn to better investment preparedness. This manual is the result of ten years of learning and input from partners who have implemented the approach across Africa, Asia and Latin America since the first version was released in 2000. [more...] |
| 30 September 2011 Two positions are currently available in the Forestry Department. We are looking for a forestry officer to coordinate FAO’s support activities to the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), and act as a departmental focal point for forestry education and research. A second position will support a range of communication activities including the development of departmental web sites and the preparation and dissemination of technical publications. [more...] |
| 29 September 2011 Eduardo Rojas-Briales, the Assistant Director-General for Forestry received a high-level delegation from the State Forestry Administration of the People's Republic of China, led by Deputy Administrator Zhang Jianlong. The meeting provided an excellent opportunity to review the experiences of the cooperation started in the early 1970s and identify priorities for the future. The priorities identified for particular attention and possible collaboration were: forest tenure reform; community forestry; forest management challenges in the light of increasing forest cover; afforestation and plantations; forest inventory and monitoring; South-South and triangular cooperation; and green growth and sustainability. The relevance of the Beijing Statement on Forests and Forestry ( http://www.fao.org/forestry/33028/en/) of the recent APEC Ministerial Meeting was well recognized. ADG Rojas commended China’s commitment to hosting the next session of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission and the 2nd Asia Pacific Forestry Week . [more...] |
| 26 September 2011 Statement by the FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf: It is with profound sadness that I learned of the passing away of Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai. I would like to convey my deepest sympathies to her family in their hour of grief. Wangari Maathai dedicated her life to saving the planet from environmental degradation and improving the well being of people, not only in Kenya, but around the world. We are indebted to the contributions she made to the work of FAO in recent years. [more...] |
| 30 August 2011 A new project executed by FAO and the Brazilian Forest Service will help Brazil improve its forest policies and decision making by a range of stakeholders. The project, entitled “Strengthening National Policy and Knowledge Framework in Support of Sustainable Management of Brazil’s Forest Resources”, will be funded by GEF for a 5-year period and aims to provide improved analyses and information on forest resources and land use. [more...] |
| 14 July 2011 Sustainable forest management requires sustainable forest finance. Watch forest finance professionals, investors and forestry specialists share perspectives and observations on forestry investments. At a recent meeting held in the Netherlands, 17 forestry investment opportunities in the tropical hemisphere were presented, together worth over 95 million USD of investments in responsible forestry. The meeting was organized by FAO, the NFP Facility and Tropenbos International with support of the Business in Development Network, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation of the Netherlands. Details can be found at http://www.tropenbos.org/index.php/en/news/news-outcomes-bussines-event . [more...] |
| 30 June 2011 This publication represents the proceedings of the FAO international technical conference dedicated to Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries that took place in Mexico on 1-4 March 2010 . A major objective of the conference was to take stock of the application of biotechnologies across the different food and agricultural sectors in developing countries, in order to learn from the past and to identify options for the future to face the challenges of food insecurity, climate change and natural resource degradation. [more...] |
| 30 June 2011 The Framework for Assessing and Monitoring Forest Governance was developed jointly by FAO and the World Bank’s Program on Forests, assisted by a group of experts on forest governance . The Framework facilitates description, diagnosis, monitoring, assessment and reporting on the state of governance in a country’s forest sector. It features a globally relevant and comprehensive list of the major elements that describe forest governance. It also provides a frame of reference for organizing governance-relevant information that can be used within and across countries to assess and monitor the governance of forests and forest resources. It can assist countries in reflecting on and responding to critical issues in forest governance in ways that can be measured, tracked and improved over time. By enabling informed discussions among stakeholders on governance in the forest sector, the Framework also seeks to foster opportunities for wider national discussions on overall governance beyond the forest sector. [more...] |
| 1 April 2011 How much do you know about the health of forests? FAO, using an integrated approach to deal with forest health problems, has produced the Guide to implementation of phytosanitary standards in forestry that provides easy to understand information about everything you should know to help protect the forests from pests. Meanwhile, Senior Pathologist Dr Kerry Britton from the US Forest Service has devised a “teaser” as part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness among the general public. For more information on forest health: http://www.fao.org/forestry/foresthealthguide/en/ For more information on the guide: http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2080e/i2080e00.pdf [more...] |
| 29 March 2011 Produced by an international group of scientists, phytosanitary authorities, forest experts and industry representatives, this guide describes how good forest management practices and well implemented phytosanitary standards can minimize pest spread and facilitate safe trade. The guide will be of interest to people involved in nursery activities, planting, managing, harvesting, manufacturing, trading and transporting forest products. It will soon be available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. [more...] |
| 11 March 2011 Women are the main users of forests in developing countries – gathering food and firewood – but they continue to be sidelined in how the forests are managed despite years of efforts to mainstream their involvement, experts said following International Women's Day on March 8. In the International Year of Forests 2011, members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), a consortium of 14 forest-related organizations and secretariats, revisit the challenges of promoting women's involvement in forestry. [more...] |
| 10 March 2011 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations announces the fourth Call for Proposals (deadline: 20 May 2011) for pilot projects and technical assistance through the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Support Programme for African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP-FLEGT Support Programme) . The four-year initiative has two main components: providing assistance to ACP countries in putting the European Union FLEGT Action Plan into practice, and supporting the collection, analysis and dissemination of FLEGT-related information and lessons learned among stakeholder groups in ACP countries. To learn more please visit our website (click "more"). [more...] |
| 24 February 2011 Growing Forest Partnerships is an initiative that helps create and strengthen ways of working together for the benefit of forests and the people that depend on them. Funded by the World Bank, the partnership includes the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), FAO and the World Bank. The February newsletter includes stories from projects in Nepal, Guatemala and Liberia and an update from G3's recent participation in Cancun and UNFF9 in New York. [more...] |
| 1 February 2011 The new publication, “Managing forests for climate change”, focuses on the central role of forest management in climate change mitigation and adaptation. It describes the many ways in which good forest management practices can maximize forests’ contribution to climate change mitigation as well as help forests and forest-dependent people adapt to new conditions. With an integrated approach to sustainable forest management, FAO’s work is highlighted in supporting countries’ efforts to strengthen the management of forests in a changing climate and to optimize forests’ role in climate change mitigation, while still considering their multiple functions and benefits. When facing new challenges such as climate change, FAO emphasizes the importance of innovative approaches, best practices and international partnerships, while building on the wealth of existing knowledge and experience in sustainable forest management. [more...] |
| 20 January 2011 Interviewed by UN Special magazine, Eduardo Rojas-Briales discusses global forest challenges, the work priorities of FAO's Forestry Department, the International Year of Forests 2011 and the main findings of the 2010 Global Forest Resource Assessment. [more...] |
| 19 January 2011 "Everything comes from the forest. People and forest, it's like husband and wife. No divorce!" The people of Kingombi and Mbanza Ngungu (Democratic Republic of the Congo) are well aware of the difference the forest makes in their lives - day after day. The Democratic Republic of the Congo holds a forest cover of key importance to Central Africa. With the support of the European Union, SNV, CIFOR, ICRAF, the main objective of project GCP/RAF/408/EC is to contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable forest management. Click to watch the video. [more...] |
| 4 January 2011 Bishkek, December 17, 2010. "Kyrgyzstan has completed a national inventory of forests" said Mr Abdymital Chyngozhoev, State Secretary of the State Agency of Environment and Forestry of the Republic. The work was initiated in 2008 with the support of the FAO. "Every 5 years in our country, our forest inventory was developed using Soviet methods. But that method is outdated. This type of inventory is the first in the Central Asian region. This is a very big job. We wanted to get reliable data about our forests and we need to think about tomorrow's forest conservation" said the State Secretary. As a result, the inventory showed 1,123,045.2 ha of forest in Kyrgyzstan (5,26%), of which 846,043.4 hectares (4.23%) were found in the territory of the State Forest Fund (SFF) and Protected Areas (PAs), while outside the territory of SFF and PAs - 277,001.8 hectares (1.39%) were found. [more...] |
last updated: Friday, December 17, 2010