Rome, 5 March 2007 - Stressing that improved forest policies and sustainable forest management necessarily entail a periodic methodical evaluation of forest resources, FAO deplores the delay of many countries in adopting modern technology and methods for collecting, analysing and managing the data needed for such an evaluation.

The FAO forestry expert Mohamed Saket reports that, with the support of FAO, six countries - Cameroon, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Lebanon and the Philippines - completed their evaluation of forest resources in 2006.

FAO launched a first pilot project in Costa Rica in 2000 under its National Forest Resources Assessment Support Programme, states Mr Saket, recalling that at the time the Organization was already concerned that most developing countries lacked even a minimum of data on which to base informed decisions concerning the good governance of their forests.

A multisectoral and international partnership

In the face of the new global context and the alarming consequences of the disappearance of forests in some regions for both plant and animal wildlife, sustainable forest resource management is becoming a matter of team work.

FAO particularly stresses the establishment of local partnerships in order to provide a network of expertise that will be of benefit to all.

According to Peter Holmgren, Forest Resources Assessment Project Director, the approach of the National Forest Inventory Programme is based on agreements with the forest administration, university and research institutes, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and the rural community.

In this connection, Mr Holmgren states, "collaboration among decision-makers, experts, researchers, forest industry managers and the local population" should be encouraged "in order to create synergy regarding national forest programmes".

Encouraging beginnings in the Republic of the Congo

In 2007, the Republic of the Congo is undertaking an assessment of its forest resources. With an area of 227.61 million ha (FAO, 2005), the Congo Basin's forests are the second largest reserve of closed rainforest in the world and constitute 70 percent of Africa's dense rainforest cover.

These forests run through the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and parts of Burundi, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe, constituting the world's second largest forest lung, after Amazonia.

Sixty percent of the Republic of the Congo's land area is under forest cover, constituting 12.3 percent of all the forests of central Africa.

"Inventories carried out to date have taken into account only a small portion of the country's forest resources," states Anne Branthomme, FAO forest resource assessment expert. Only about 25 percent of the Congo's forests have in fact been inventoried in the past 30 years, and such inventories have focused essentially on commercial timber.

"The approach followed by earlier inventories did not integrate forest resources with those of other economic sectors (agriculture, livestock etc.)," Ms Branthomme adds.

Reliable information

The Congo Forest Resources Assessment Programme will allow the establishment of a long-term monitoring system for tree and forest resources. In a little more than a year's time, it should be providing reliable, precise and full information on all the country's forest resources and help to strengthen national capacities with regard to inventories. The programme also seeks to consolidate collaboration among the various parties concerned.

The information produced will provide a basis for national dialogue to analyse and redefine national policies and strategies on forests, while taking associated sectors and the social, economic and environmental aspects of forest resources into account.

The FAO project in the Congo is carried out by the National Forest and Wildlife Resources Inventory and Management Centre, which supports the action of the Ministry of Forest Economy and the Environment in Brazzaville. "An important component of our programme is the training of young national forestry staff and capacity-building with regard to data gathering, processing, analysis and management on forests, trees outside forests and the environment," says François Ntsiba, director of the centre.

According to FAO, it is vital that this process further the interests of the local communities who make their living from forest products.

"Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change we all have a duty to contribute to sustainable management of the natural resources of the Congo Basin and promote economic development, the reduction of poverty and inequality, and better governance for the benefit of those who are dependent on natural resources," declares Mr Holmgren.