The purpose of this report is to advise the Forest Resource Assessment program of the FAO as to how it may improve the quality of the interview component of its new approach to National Forest Assessments (NFA). While the physical measures of the NFA have detailed instructions to the field personnel, these are not firmly in place for the NFA interview component. This report provides such instructions. The suggested measures have been developed with the idea to enhance the existing procedures for quality control of the NFA interview data. The concepts of validity and reliability are introduced as central criteria for assessing the quality of the NFA results and several practical tests are suggested in the report. The suggested approach to quality control promises to both simplify and strengthen the interview results without great costs in time and money. While the costs of the suggested measures may not be great, several significant changes seem necessary to implement them. The payoff for a modified NFA interview component is that it will improve NFA credibility and the likelihood of affecting policy decisions. The new NFA will give policy makers a better idea of what is causing changes in forest conditions and how these changes affect different groups of people.
