FAO initiated collaboration between Forest Survey of India (FSI) and Sri Lanka Forest Department (SLFD) for the design of Sri Lanka’s National Forest Inventory (NFI), institutional capacity building and technology transfer for implementing Sri Lanka’s first NFI cycle. Cooperation between India and Sri Lanka was initiated in early January 2015, with the visit of a team of senior officers of SLFD to FSI for orientation and training on India’s NFI design and implementation, and discussion on potential application in Sri Lanka. SLFD subsequently invited FSI to continue this training and technical support, in partnership with FAO, through the Sri Lanka...

An expert exchange took place at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe with the participation of 190 specialists to work on the draft of the update to the guidelines that countries use to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and removals in order, among others, to bring them in line with the new requirements of the Paris Agreement. This is the second meeting of lead authors of the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, in short 2019 Refinement. Read more about the expert meeting and the next steps in the press release and at the website of IPCC (www.ipcc.ch) For more information, please contact Inge Jonckheere,...

The biological diversity of the world’s forests is becoming increasingly relevant as countries meet reporting obligations of national institutions and international conventions. While contributing to accelerating extinction rates, forest loss also adds up to the uncertainties associated with climate change. FAO Forestry and through the UN-REDD Programme, FAO supports countries to monitor their forest resources as these are the most important repositories of terrestrial biological diversity. In the present era of Big Data, cooperation among countries, agencies and institutions is crucial for sustaining global forest biodiversity. Working not only with governments, but also with the academic community, FAO actively contributes towards...

The UN-REDD Asia-Pacific Regional Knowledge Exchange 2017 convened 30+ representatives from 10 Southeast-Asian UN-REDD partner countries, as well as Indigenous Peoples' and CSO representatives, to discuss issues related to “Operationalizing and financing National REDD+ Strategies: from programming and financing implementation to results-based payments”. The knowledge sharing also benefited from inter-regional cross-fertilisation through the attendance of a representative of Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment, as well as the remote participation of a representative from Chile’s National Forestry Corporation (CONAF). The event took place from 10-12 October 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan and FAO concluded a four-year agreement that will help improve the assessment, monitoring and reporting of global and country-level efforts in afforestation and reforestation and conservation with a view to enhancing forest carbon stocks.