Summary: National forest monitoring and assessment: an essential tool for national policies and international reporting National Forest Monitoring and Assessment (NFMA) is an essential tool for national-level forest policy making and evaluation. It provides new knowledge on the state and trends of land uses and resources as well as on the interactions and interdependencies between forests and other land uses. NFMA constitute a base for intersectoral scenario development and planning involving various sectors to develop coherent policies. In many countries, there is no forest monitoring system in place. Consequently their national information is outdated, partial or subjective and, in most cases, the precision and accuracy of the data are unknown. FAO supports countries in their efforts to close the knowledge gap by providing technical assistance for strengthening the national capabilities in establishing multipurpose national forest monitoring systems addressing the multiple functions of forest and trees and their contributions to national economies, food security and poverty alleviation in rural areas. The side event will present how FAO assists countries in developing efficient national forest monitoring and assessments based on a combination of field measurements, interviews and use of remote sensing techniques. Discussions will focus on how forest monitoring systems can better target evolving national information needs and international reporting requirements on forest and trees, in particular for national forest programmes and policies making processes, REDD monitoring and greenhouse gas reporting. More detailed on the FAO support to NFMA can be found at www.fao.org/forestry/nfma

Summary: A Needs Assessment Workshop was held in Banjul, The Gambia on June 17-19. Participants included over fifty people from more then twenty institutions, NGOs, academic and governmental agencies (GBOS, KOMMFORA, National Planning Commission, NARI, University of the Gambia, NACO, Dept. of Water Resources, Dept. of Agriculture, Concern Universal, etc.) During plenary and working group sessions the participants reviewed and discussed the main concern and needs for the National Forest Assessment (NFA) in the Gambia. A list of over 100 issues were categorized in terms of their relative importance. The workshop results went beyond the scope of the NFA therefore it proved to be an excellent exercise for raising a number of issues of concern for the Gambia natural resource and livelihood. Techincal meetings were also held as well as a recoinnassance field mission.

Summary: This workshop is part of a programme of work on methodological issues related to a range of policy approaches and positive incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries undertaken by the SBSTA. The workshop focuses on how to address outstanding methodological issues, including, inter alia, assessments of changes in forest cover and associated carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions, incremental changes due to sustainable management of the forest, demonstration of reductions in emissions from deforestation, including reference emissions levels, estimation and demonstration of reduction in emissions from forest degradation, implications of national and subnational approaches including displacement of emissions, options for assessing the effectiveness of actions. The secretariat will prepare a report on the workshop for consideration of the SBSTA at its twenty-ninth session.

Summary: FAO en colaboración con INFOR. El taller está enfocado en los métodos para generar y usar información forestal. El dicho taller está tocando varios nuevas demandas de información; cómo evitar la deforestación, la contabilidad del carbón, la contabilidad ambiental, la conservación de la biodiversidad y las Metas del Desarrollo del Milenio.

Summary: Main objective of the meeting: to seek and establish linkages between national forest assessments and policy development processes. More specifically the expert consultation focused on: - Policy development - Information packaging - FAO's advisory role - Global knowledge network - NFA improvement

Summary: The objective of the workshop was to discuss the scope and framework of a regional program carried out in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen. This project aims a improving the national forestry policies and institutional capacities in these countries, which will allow the forestry sector to play better its environmental, social and economic roles.

Summary: The objective of the meeting was to: Evaluate the approach to NFA; assess the use and utility of the results in the process of policy impact analysis; recommend ways to improve the scope, quality and use of the NFA results; provide guidance to FAO to improve its assistance to the countries; and explore mechanisms that would enable the countries to sustain the achievements of the NFA.