In Sudan, forests are considered among the most important natural resources. Their environmental role in making the first and last defence line against desert creeping southwards, protecting the Nile watershed system and contributing to carbon sequestration in these barren zones of the world give their importance a regional and a global dimension. To protect the country’s natural wealth and at the same time fulfil various national and international commitments, Sudan is taking significant steps to implement activities to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+).

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports the country in the development of robust National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) that aim to obtain up-to-date, reliable, transparent and accessible information about the extent and nature of the country’s forests and guide decision and policy making for sustainable development of its forest resources. The activities are being implemented under the framework of the project “Support for the design of the MRV System in the framework of REDD+ Readiness in the Sudan”, implemented by Sudan’s Forests National Corporation (FNC) and Sudanese Remote Sensing Authority (RSA) with technical support from FAO and financial support from the World Bank under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). 

To facilitate the formulation of the NFMS Action Plan in Sudan, a two-day consultation workshop was organized in Khartoum, Sudan on 6 - 7 October 2019 at the Grand Holiday Villa Hotel. Attended by the implementing partners as well as other project stakeholders such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Livestock, the Ministry of Wildlife, as well as academia and the private sector, the event offered 60 participants a platform to exchange information and experiences related to national forest inventory (NFI) implementation, the use of forest data for national plans and strategies, and program sustainability and institutionalization.

The workshop was the beginning of an important process as REDD+ and forestry monitoring experts from Khartoum and various Sudanese States came together to identify the critical institutional capacity needs to ensure the country is able to meet its requirements for evidence-based policy formulation and international reporting obligations.

In his opening remarks, FAO Representative to Sudan Mr Babagana Ahmadu, highlighted the importance of the event and its topic to Sudan’s climate commitments: “Understanding that climate change is one of the defining challenges and risks of our generation and global efforts to address these challenges require a multi-pronged approach – one of our focus is to strengthen institutional capacity,” stated Mr Ahmadu. “Having adequate national forest monitoring system capacity, and well-resourced institutions, and technically competent staff will enable Sudan achieve its REDD+ goals contributing to the overall economic development across all sectors.”

Monitoring forests in Sudan

National forest monitoring and assessment (NFM) provides information countries need to manage their forests sustainably and meet national and international reporting requirements. The forest monitoring process includes data collection, analysis, and dissemination to a variety of stakeholders, and is shaped by specific monitoring needs, environmental conditions and forest types. In Sudan, as in many other countries, this process uses a national forest inventory (NFI) as the data collection tool that drives other NFM activities. Thanks to the project activities, Sudan has recently finalised its state-of-the-art National scale NFI. The experience gained by Sudan is invaluable to not only further strengthen national capabilities for NFM but also to use it for policy planning and sustainable management of Sudanese natural resources as well as for reporting under the Paris Agreement.

“This workshop is very important for Sudan to develop the national forest monitoring system. Participants representing all the states in Sudan, who participated in the NFI activities as well as NGOs and academia have contributed to the national priorities and provided insight into the capacity needs assessment,” said Sayeda Adam, REDD+ coordinator at FNC. “The knowledge gained from this workshop will support decision makers on land and forest sector focused decisions as well as increase the capacity of staff of the National Forestry Corporation.”

Looking at Sudan’s forests from above

Separate parallel training sessions on remote sensing were held during the workshops, allowing the participants from Forests National Corporation, the Remote Sensing & Seismology Authority and research institutions to have better access to precise and timely data and support Sudan in combating deforestation to help meet national and international climate targets. Remote sensing technologies, which includes sensors, processing software and analysis, has been extensively studied and applied in Sudan in various sectors including Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU). Studies that employed remote sensing have improved understanding of the state of Sudan’s forests. At the strategic level of forest planning, or in general planning for forest resource allocation over a wide area, remote sensing can play an important role in estimating and monitoring forest cover.

Moving forward

The agriculture and forestry sector are critical, not only to the economic development of Sudan and its democratic transition but will play a critical role in mitigation and adaptation measures necessary to safeguard the livelihoods of the population. Moving forward in its REDD+ efforts, Sudan recognizes that strong NFM capacities will be lead to enhance the sustainable management of the country’s forests and lands. Nelson Gapare, FAO consultant supporting the institutional capacity needs and gap assessment for NFMS and MRV reflected on the next steps: “Following this national workshop, the government of Sudan will start formulating its NFMS Action Plan outlining how it will address any identified institutional capacity needs and gaps. The development of an action plan is an important step towards strategizing about how to finance the short, medium and long-term requirements to meet national and international climate change reporting requirements – for instance – obligations under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement. The gradual development of the NFMS and relevant MRV functions will be fundamentally important as Sudan embarks on new economic policies across all sectors including agriculture and forestry”. 

For more information, please contact:

Matthias Lichtenberger

Chief Technical Advisor

REDD+/NFM cluster, FAO Forestry

[email protected]

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