Accurate and consistent information on forest area and forest area change is important given the reporting requirements for countries to access results based payments for REDD+ . Forest area change estimates usually provide data on the extent of human activity resulting in emissions (e.g. from deforestation) or removals (e.g. from afforestation), also called activity data (AD). A basic methodological approach to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and removals (IPCC, 2003), is to multiply AD with a coefficient that quantifies emissions per unit ‘activity’ (e.g. tCO2e per ha), also called an emission factor (EF).

This week, FAO will bring together around 30 country representatives and forestry experts from research institutions and intergovernmental organizations to consolidate the planning for the Global Forest Survey (GFS) project.

The project will establish a global network of forestry sample plots to produce freely available and comparable forest data about the characteristics and health status of specific forest ecosystems (not limited by country borders). Implemented by FAO, the project is supported by the International Climate Initiative of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) of Germany.

Forest monitoring was among the main themes discussed during the 2015 World Forestry Congress. Subtheme 5, "Monitoring forests for better decision-making" was aimed at providing a forum for sharing experiences in forest monitoring, success stories and lessons learned. FAO Forest Monitoring teams were present with a number of side events to highlight progress and experiences in the monitoring of forest resources at national level. Events and side events included:

>> Session 5.3 - Experiences from around the world - A selection of voluntary papers based on national or sub-national experience and case studies.

>> Open Foris - free and open source tools for data collection, analysis and reporting – Presentation of the current Open Foris software tools and practical examples of user cases from Africa, Asia and South America.

>> Sharing experiences on the implementation of national forest monitoring - Experiences and lessons learned on the implementation of a National Forest Monitoring and introduction of the FAO voluntary guidelines on national forest monitoring.

>> Global Forest Survey - A global network of field plots to freely share knowledge and data on forests - A project in cooperation with technical and research organizations to produce open and free information on forest attributes at biome and forest type level.

>> Improving national ownership of data collection for informed decision-making – FAO’s use of open-source tools for capacity building on forest monitoring and how this approach promotes data accuracy and national ownership.

>> Improving data on socioeconomic benefits of forests - Progress and experiences in developing tools and methodological approaches to collect, share and use national data on socioeconomic benefits of forests.

More info at WFC web... [more]