Forest resources assessment - support to national forest assessments

Rationale

Monitoring of criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management, biodiversity, etc is becoming at the centre of interest of policy makers and managers of resources at all levels. The role of forests and trees outside forest in food security is valuable and need to be properly assessed by the national forest inventories and global forest assessments. Forests and trees provide food, shelter, employment and other wood and non wood goods and a wide range of services that are vital to people in the rural areas to sustain their livelihood. National inventories should thus address these issues and assess such a role. It should also establish the role of man and woman in resources management and use.

The FRA support to national forest inventories aims at helping countries in developing or strengthening their capacities for continued national inventories. It also aims at broadening the knowledge base of the countries on forests and tree resources at the national level based on reliable field data collected at a moderate cost on a wide range of biophysical and on management and uses parameters. The inventory approach is designed as a compromise between the volume of data needed, the precision of results and the cost of the survey.