Report Prepared for the
Forest Resources Assessment Program of the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations
The Forest Resources Assessment Programme
Forests are crucial for the well-being of humanity. They provide foundations for life on earth through ecological functions, by regulating the climate and water resources, and by serving as habitats for plants and animals. Forests also furnish a wide range of essential goods such as wood, food, fodder and medicines, in addition to opportunities for recreation, spiritual renewal and other services.
Today, forests are under pressure from expanding human populations, which frequently leads to the conversion or degradation of forests into unsustainable forms of land use. When forests are lost or severely degraded, their capacity to function as regulators of the environment is also lost, increasing flood and erosion hazards, reducing soil fertility, and contributing to the loss of plant and animal life. As a result, the sustainable provision of goods and services from forests is jeopardized.
FAO, at the request of the member nations and the world community, regularly monitors the world's forests through the Forest Resources Assessment Programme. The next report, the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000), will review the forest situation by the end of the millennium. FRA 2000 will include country-level information based on existing forest inventory data, regional investigations of land-cover change processes, and a number of global studies focusing on the interaction between people and forests. The FRA 2000 report will be made public and distributed on the world wide web in the year 2000.
The Forest Resources Assessment Programme is organized under the Forest Resources Division (FOR) at FAO headquarters in Rome. Contact persons are:
Peter Holmgren FRA Project Director mailto:[email protected]
or use the e-mail address: [email protected]
1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Structure of the Report
1.2. Definitions
3. DATA
CONTENT AND FORMAT
3.1. The Contribution of Interview Variables to NFA Outputs
3.2. Usefulness of Interview Variables for Policy Makers
4. APPROACH AND METHOD
ASSESSMENT
4.1. RELIABILITY
4.2. VALIDITY
4.3. UNCERTAINTY ESTIMATE
5. FIELD OBSERVATIONS IN
GUATEMALA
5.1. Interview Preparations
5.2. Carrying out Interviews
5.3. Interview Data Processing and Evaluation
6.
RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1. Define a Minimum Standard for Interview Methods
6.2. Test the Quality of Information
Paper drafted by: Krister P. Andersson Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC), Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA.
