National Forest Monitoring and Assessment - NFMA

News NFMA at World Forestry Congress 2009 28 September 2009 The NFMA will participate at the WFC 2009 with a Side Event on: National forest monitoring and assessment: an essential tool for national policies and international reporting [more...] IUFRO Division 4 - Extending Forest Inventory and Monitoring over Space and Time 1 June 2009 Mr. Jim Carle, Chief FOMR, presented on "Support to Forest Inventory and Monitoring in Developing Countries" and NFMA activities at IUFRO Division 4 - Extending Forest Inventory and Monitoring over Space and Time - May 19-22, 2009 Quebec City, Canada. More here: http://skog.for.msu.edu/meeting/index.html [more...] NFMA at the International Workshop on “National Forest Inventory: The Experiences of Non-Annex I Countries” 11 May 2009 A three day international workshop on “National Forest Inventory: The Experiences of Non-Annex I Countries” was held from 27 to 29 April 2009 at ICFRE, Dehradun. Additional information is available at ICFRE's website [www.icfre.org]. Workshop report and presentations are also available here. [more...] New Finnish-UN partnership aims to help developing countries protect forests 30 March 2009 Finland and FAO signed a €14 million partnership agreement to improve forest data collection and analysis as well as management skills in selected developing countries for sustainable forest management [more...] Go to News Archive News from NFMA Country Projects Nicaragua - Video on IFN now online 29 October 2009 A video (in Spanish) on the Inventario Forestal Nacional is now available online also through FAO's official YouTube channel [more...] Tanzania - Launch of NAFORMA Project 14 July 2009 The NAFORMA launching ‘Data needs and Inventory design workshop’ took place in Dar Es Salaam, from 30th June till 2nd July 2009. The workshop aimed at gathering all the necessary data and information concerning inventory data and user needs for National Forest Assessment (NFA) in Tanzania. The workshop was attended by some 70 participants including (local stakeholders from ministries, NGOs, international and national experts) and finished with concrete recommendations of different working groups, to be used by the local FAO consultant team, deadline end of July 2009. The most important issues were information needs, sampling design and stratification, the possible link with REDD, and land use/ vegetation classification options. Further project implementation was discussed, as well as linkage between different ongoing RS initiatives FRA RSS, GEO, the Norwegian lidar project, UN-REDD and the NAFORMA, to set up a road map what’s to be done in the upcoming months and to identify the actions and actors in the following phases of the project. The UN REDD joint mission will revise the JNP in the end of July. [more...] Peru - initiated activities for NFI project 14 July 2009 During the last week of June 2009, through an informational and promotional workshop, Peru started the activities toward the formulation of the project for a National Forest Monitoring and Assessment. The event was carried out under the leadership of the Head Office of Forestry and Wildlife under the Ministry of Environment. The main stakeholders of the forestry sector participated in the event, among others, regional governments, universities, the institute for studies in the Amazon region of Peru and the private sector were present. It was agreed by all the participants that a high priority should be placed on the assessment and monitoring of natural resources to support decision making , forestry development policies and monitoring GHG in line with the REDD mechanism. Peru is the ninth country in the world in terms of forest area and the second in the Latin American Region. So far, efforts have been made for generating information in the various regions of the country, there is no doubt that it is now necessary to organize and harmonize all these initiatives and establish a system of forest monitoring at national level. [more...] The Gambia - Needs Assessment Workshop 24 June 2009 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. All participants actively engaged in the discussion. Techincal meetings were also held as well as a recoinnassance field mission. [more...] NFMA Brochure Arabic  Chinese  English  French  Russian  Spanish

Related Sites Knowledge Reference for National Forest Assessments Regional Networking on MAR NFMA links collection

 Comprehensive, representative and accurate information is needed on the management and use of forests and natural resources

Yet, in many countries, information is outdated, partial or subjective, and in most cases the precision and accuracy of the data are unknown. Consequently, scenario development and planning may be inaccurate as proper knowledge for decision making is lacking.

The Support

Upon request, FAO supports countries in their efforts to close this knowledge gap by implementing systematic field inventories and establishing forest information services. The national forest monitoring and assessment (NFMA) programme of FAO has been active since 2000 in a growing number of countries. What started as a series of pilot projects has now developed into full scale national forest monitoring assessments (NFMA) and integrated land use assessments (ILUA)

NFMAs enable data driven decision making

NFMAs provide a basis for national-level analysis and planning, broaden the knowledge base on forestry in a country, and enhance national capacities to monitor land uses and trends. Statistical rigour makes it possible to aggregate findings at the national level, thus creating new knowledge that outlines interactions and interdependencies between forests and other land uses.

Forestry and beyond

NFMAs typically cover not only forest resources on forest lands but also trees outside forests.  They encompass a wide set of biophysical and socio-economic variables that can be transformed into harmonized information and knowledge on the social, economic and environmental benefits of forests and trees, their management, uses and users. The generated information includes: extent of forest types and land use, growing stocks, environmental problems, biomass and carbon, biological diversity, use and management of the forest resources and non-wood forest products. In some countries the assessment is extended to an ILUA by collecting information on other land uses such as crops, livestock, soil and water. Integrating the assessment and monitoring across forest, agriculture and other sectors offers a better understanding of ecosystems services and functions and creates possibilities for analysing land management as whole and developing coherent policies.

Capacity building

The main objectives of the program include strengthening the ability of countries to update, expand and manage their forestry information base for their own benefit. National professionals lead all components of the assessment.  Field teams are trained in inventory techniques and carry out all fieldwork.  NFMAs aim to increase the awareness of the multiple functions of forest and trees and their contributions to national economies, food security and poverty alleviation in rural areas.