Name Hivy Ortiz Chour Age 43 Place of birth Guatemala Languages Spanish, English, Italian, French

Job title
Forestry officer

“I work in FAO’s Forestry Department on the Forest Resources Assessment Programme.

What exactly are we assessing? Everybody wants to know about forest and tree resources, not just in terms of how much forest is there, but also how is it used, and how should it be used. It’s a very important issue. So we measure how much of the world is covered by forests and how much this forest cover is changing over the time. But we need to know more. We need to know the characteristics of the forest: is it primary forest? Secondary forest? Is it plantation? How much harvestable wood do they contain? What about forest biodiversity? Who owns the forest land? How is it managed?

And it’s not just about forest, but also about trees and trees outside forests. It’s also about non-wood forest products, like nuts, fruits, herbs, spices, fibres, resins, medical plants and habitats for wildlife. We need to know more about forest and tree resources, so that better management decisions can be made. That’s part of what our programme is all about.

It’s important to understand that an accurate global assessment of forest resources depends on getting accurate information from individual countries. Our programme works with specially designated government forestry officials in countries all around the world who provide us the national information. I deal specifically with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Because we pool information from individual countries to create a global assessment, we have to make absolutely certain that everyone understands the global standards and definitions we have proposed. We don’t replace national definitions as they are established by individual countries. Global definitions help to compare data among countries and add up the information. We also provide training and organize workshops to help countries carry out country reports for the global Forest Resources Assessment.

We’re not doing this just for a better understanding of the status of the world’s forests. Forests and forest resources are linked to the survival of the world’s people. We all benefit if we manage the world’s forests resources sustainably. But good management starts with good information. That’s what our programme provides.”