Over 80 forestry experts and international development partners from 24 countries of Africa, Near East, Central Asia and the Mediterranean gathered in Konya (Turkey) from 28-31 May at an international workshop, that is organized and supported by the Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, FAO, the Turkish International Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
This event is held in response to recommendations by FAO member countries to develop operational guidelines for the restoration of degraded forest landscapes and lands under the difficult environmental and socio-economic conditions in arid and semi-arid zones, for the benefit of the local population. The workshop participants shared experiences, identify key elements of success and failure in forest restoration projects and discussed the comprehensive restoration monitoring tool, newly developed by FAO, to guide planning, implementation and evaluation of field projects and programmes.
The ACP-FLEGT Support Programme in partnership with the Forestry Commission of Ghana and the EFI EU FLEGT Facility, is soliciting papers for a regional workshop on “Experiences from the FLEGT/VPA process in West and Central African countries”, scheduled for 23 - 25 October 2012 in Accra, Ghana.
FAO, in collaboration with forest management, climate change experts and relevant stakeholders, is developing guidelines to assist forest managers to effectively respond to climate change challenges and opportunities. These guidelines will include actions related to both climate change adaptation and mitigation and will be relevant to all types of forests, all management objectives and all types of managers. To facilitate the development of the guidelines, a survey was conducted through which forest stakeholders provided their views and perceptions on factors that influence the ability of forest managers to respond to climate change. This publication presents the results of the survey
Sometimes it takes a picture to see. Raising awareness of the importance of tenure governance is crucial. Photographers are invited to demonstrate their ideas on the “Governance of Tenure” that capture the diversity of regions, people, social problems and solutions that are linked to it.
16 May 2012 FAO is helping scientists and policymakers in Tanzania to evaluate how much carbon is stored in forests and forests soils, which will enable them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A new FAO soil survey project was presented today at the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Bonn, Germany. [more...]
The 64th issue of the FAO Yearbook of Forest Products has just been released. Published in 5 languages, the 2010 yearbook contains annual data on the production and trade in forest products for the years 2006-2010 and on the direction of trade in 2009 and 2010. The full forest products time series starting in 1961 are also available online at http://faostat.fao.org. The publication of the yearbook is made possible by the cooperation of governments who supply information using questionnaires. This edition benefits from expanded co-operation in gathering forest sector statistics among a number of international organizations.
11 May 2012 In a landmark decision the Committee on World Food Security today endorsed a set of far-reaching global guidelines aimed at helping governments safeguard the rights of people to own or access land, forests and fisheries. The new Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security outline principles and practices that governments can refer to when making laws and administering land, fisheries and forests rights. [more...]
The Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests has been approved by the 38th Session of the Committee on World Food Security. This video explains the three year process involved in preparing the Voluntary Guidelines, the significance of this endorsement, and next steps.
Rio de Janeiro, 19 June 2012: Organized by CIFOR,Forests: The 8th Roundtable at Rio+20 will gather global experts and policy makers to discuss new research findings – and remaining knowledge gaps -- and their policy implications for integrating forests into the solutions to four key challenges toward a green economy: Energy, food and income, water, and climate.
The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) has launched the first ever Wangari Maathai Award to honour and commemorate an extraordinary woman who championed forest issues around the world. The USD20,000 award will be given in recognition of outstanding contributions made by an individual to preserve, restore and sustainably manage forests and to communicate the key role forests play in rural livelihoods and the environment across generations.
Applications are welcome for the new Erasmus Mundus Master Course Programme: MEDfOR - Mediterranean Forestry and Natural Resources Management. The programme welcomes students from all over the world. Additional scholarships are available from the Mediterranean Office for Youth (MOY) and the Projet Régional Silva Mediterranea of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ GmbH).
FAO and other international organizations will join forces with the private sector to make the forest sector more visible at Rio+20 by holding a forward-looking side event on 18 June. The role of forests and forest industries in building the green economy and fostering rural development at the resource base – the two key themes of Rio+20 – will be highlighted. Increasingly, the climate-smart management of forests and the wise use of trees are seen as a collaborative effort between the public and private holders of forests, large and small private enterprises and local communities.
Anggun, FAO Goodwill Ambassador, celebrated the 42nd UN Earth Day in concert in Naples, Italy. Anggun participated in the International Year of Forests 2011 and has been witness to the initiative YUNGA (Youth and United Nations Global Alliance), whose purpose is to raise awareness and educate children and young people in environmental issues such as climate change and biodiversity.
26 March 2012 The results of a new FAO global Teak Resources and Market Assessment conducted in 60 tropical countries show that natural teak forests are declining worldwide and that the quality of natural grown teak wood is deteriorating. On the other hand, the survey also reveals that planted teak forests are increasing in area and - when good management practices are applied - producing high quality wood. [more...]
The CD contains the key findings and main report of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. It also contains all country reports, result tables in Excel format and terms and definitions. It is a multi-lingual CD and published in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
FAO has released an e-learning course aimed at improving the health of the world’s forests and reducing the risk of spreading forest pests through international trade. The course – Good practices for forest health protection – is based on the Guide to implementation of phytosanitary standards in forestry that provides easy to understand information about everything you should know to help protect forests from pests. Developed as a refresher course for forest sector personnel, this e-learning course will also be of interest to anyone interested in learning more about how to protect the health of our forests.
As part of a FAO-led process to prepare climate change guidelines for forest managers, this publication summarizes the knowledge, challenges and experiences in forest management and climate change impacts, based on a literature review and a survey of forest managers. A number of gaps in enabling conditions (related to knowledge, institutional setting and culture) that hamper forest managers from responding effectively to climate change and its impacts, are identified.
The School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography at Bangor University, Wales, have secured up to 15 scholarships from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission for MSc Forestry (Distance Learning) for September 2012 entry. The scholarship also includes a generous travel bursary to enable scholars to attend an international study tour. Applicants from the following developing Commonwealth countries are eligible for the scholarship: Bangladesh, Botswana, Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
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.
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.
