Key Assets of FAO in Forestry
Forestry covers both forests and trees in the landscape, and is concerned with the multiple economic, cultural and environmental benefits of trees. Activities are carried out not only in forests, but also on farms, on rangelands, in barren watersheds and in other ecosystems not traditionally considered forests. The commercial aspects of forestry include the many steps from production to processing, marketing and trade. As the future of forests is determined as much by developments outside as within the sector, the FAO Forestry Programme works closely with other disciplines and agencies to ensure the optimal use and conservation of forests and associated lands. FAO also supports a variety of informal and formal organizations as potential partners in sustainable forest management. In defining its Strategic Plan for Forestry, FAO thus seeks to meet the needs of its member countries and other clients, to foster interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work and to facilitate collaboration with and among other organizations.
FAO's role is to serve as a facilitator and catalyst, and to provide information, guidance and assistance to the actual managers of the resource. The primary clients of FAO are national governments representing its member countries, but the Organization also serves other concerned and responsible advocates for forestry, including NGOs, private companies, foundations, universities and rural people's organizations. FAO assists them in achieving a better understanding, use and management of the world's trees and forests. Through its own efforts and partnership with others, FAO aims to facilitate progress toward sustainable management of all types of forests.
To carry out this mission, the FAO Forestry Programme has (as of March 2000) a cadre of 54 full-time professional staff at headquarters and 15 at decentralized offices. In addition, it employs many temporary staff with a diverse range of skills in forestry, wildlife resources, watershed management, genetics, economics, public administration, sociology, forest products utilization and engineering. This broad skills base allows the Organization to address the full spectrum of environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable forest management. Linkages of the Forestry Programme to the other FAO programmes in agriculture, economics, fisheries and sustainable development also facilitate cross-sectoral approaches to major issues, such as food security, rural development and integrated land use.
Since its founding in 1945, FAO has grown to include 180 Member Nations plus the European Community (Member Organization). It includes all the major forested countries of the world except the Russian Federation, which currently has a special liaison status. This broad membership makes FAO a truly global organization and allows it to address issues facing all the world's forests - boreal, temperate, subtropical and tropical, forests in developed and developing countries, dry forests and humid ones, high altitude forests and mangroves, and even trees on farms and in cities.
Another key asset of the FAO Forestry Programme is the synergy between normative and operational work. The importance of the normative, information-gathering function lies not only in its use in global or regional planning and in detecting trends in the forestry sector, but also in the use of information to advise member governments on policy and technical matters. Similarly, the field programme is a major source of information and is an important mechanism for maintaining the relevance of FAO's work to the practical realities of its member countries. The ability to assemble information globally and to work directly with countries to help them apply and adapt the information to local conditions is one of the most vital assets of FAO in forestry.