The below ToR's were sent with workshop invitations.
Regional workshop on Forestry Information Services
in support of national forest policy development, implementation and evaluation.
Terms of Reference (Draft 7 November 2000)
Summary
FAO will, through a Swedish trust fund project, support a regional workshop involving forestry institutions from 10 Southern African countries (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The workshop will be held in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and have a duration of six days, tentatively in February 2001. It will be co-organized by FAO, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (South Africa) and University of Stellenbosch. The workshop will focus on development of national forestry information services to support forest policy development, implementation and follow-up. Three main themes will be included:
1. Follow-up and evaluation of FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 for the participating countries;
2. Development of national forestry information system to support the national needs for storage, analysis and dissemination of forestry information;
3. Improved collection of policy-relevant forestry information through field surveying.
The workshop follows the findings of a workshop held in Pretoria in October 2000, funded by Sida and involving three countries (Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe).
Background
The need for improved national forestry information service has been identified by countries in the region and elaborated in a workshop held in Pretoria 23-27 October 2000. The workshop was supported and coordinated by Sida and included participants from Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe (xx 2000). The workshop concluded that national development of forestry information services in support of policy development was important and include the following agenda items:
1. Constitution of a forestry information service at the national level;
2. Development of national forestry information system to support organization, analysis and dissemination of forest and forestry information;
3. Improving collection of policy-relevant forestry information.
The proposed workshop intends to continue this conceptual work and work with implementation of information service functions. The workshop will be funded by FAO through a Swedish trust fund project aimed specifically to capacity building within forest resources assessment.
Support to national capacity building is central to FAO and its Forest Resources Assessment Programme (FRA). Furthermore, improved information and knowledge management, in support of sustainable forest management, has been identified as high priorities in the FAO Forestry Strategy. The proposed workshop is in line with FAO's endeavour to a better understanding of forest and forestry processes, and will support national and international efforts towards sustainable forestry.
Preparations for the workshop include development of a prototype information system following the identified needs in South Africa. The prototype is developed by FAO in collaboration with Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and will serve as input to the workshop.
Inputs to the workshop will also be provided by FAO, through its development of a Global Forest Survey. Concepts and results from methodology development and pilot projects will serve as a starting point for the workshop discussions on improved collection of policy-related forestry information.
Workshop objectives
The workshop will have three objectives:
1. To evaluate and provide feed-back to FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 for the participating countries;
2. To evaluate prototype of a national forestry information system to support the national needs for storage, analysis and dissemination of forestry information;
3. To make recommendations on improved collection of policy-relevant forestry information through field surveying.
Workshop programme
The preliminary programme is built around the objectives above. Country reports to be submitted before the workshop are further specified in following sections. The country reports will be synthesized and presented together as indicated below. The workshop is proposed to extend over 6 days (Monday to Saturday) as follows:
Day 1 |
- Opening and agreement on agenda - Presentation of FRA 2000 process and results (FAO) - Presentation of workshop country reports, evaluating FRA 2000 results. The country reports will be synthesized and presented by South Africa; - Discussion on FRA 2000 results and country reports, recommendations to FAO for its continued assessments, and proposals to improve and/or expand the current country information. |
Day 2-3 |
- Presentation of prototype forestry information system1 for South Africa (FAO); - Presentation of information structure and views on the information system prototype (South Africa); - Presentation of general guidelines and principles for information system development, including long-term aspects and optional approaches (FAO); - Group-wise training and evaluation of information system prototype; - Presentation (Group-wise) of findings and recommendations; - Discussion and formulation of recommendations for future development of information systems for national forestry information services; |
Day 4 |
Field excursion to forest/woodlands relevant in a policy perspective |
Day 5-6 |
- Presentation of FAO's Global Forest Survey (GFS) concept, including on-going pilot activities; - Presentation of country reports on policy-relevant information needs, and how these could be tied in with the GFS concept; - Group-work on variables to be collected in the field phase of a systematic survey to capture policy-relevant information; - Presentation of group work findings; - Discussion on GFS concept and possibilities for project formulations, formulation of recommendations; - Evaluation of workshop and recomemndations on follow-up actions. |
1) "Information System" refers to systems in a broad sense, ie including
Expected outputs
Recommendations to FAO on the implementation of future global assessments;
Proposals to improve the current country information presented by FAO;
Evaluation of information system prototype in the context of forestry information service needs;
Recommendations on continued development of the information system, including involvement of more countries;
Identified policy analyses requests, and related field information needs;
Recommendations on implementation of GFS in the countries, including adaptions to national situations and requirements;
Identification and outlines of project proposals for donor consideration.
Participants
The workshop emphasizes implementation of information system and new collections of policy-relevant information. In addition, the follow-up work on FRA 2000 will elaborate on avalilable national statistics and the analysis of these. It is therefore recommended that the participants be authorities on national forestry statistics and/or forest inventory.
FAO invites two participants from each participating country. For South Africa, a total of five participants are invited. FAO will tentatively be represented by four resource persons.
Organization
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry of South Africa, the Faculty of..., University of Stellenboch and FAO, Forest Resources Assessment Programme will jointly arrange the workshop.
Co-ordinators are Sebueng Kelatwang (DWAF), nn (University of Stellenbosch) and Peter Holmgren (FAO)
From FAO, three to four resource persons will participate in the workshop and work jointly with the national resource person.
Time and place
The workshop will be held in Stellenbosch, South Africa, during six days in February 2001.
Tasks of DWAF
Prepare budget proposal
Arrange formal invitation to other countries to participate (with FAO)
Identify and invite South African participants
Inform and maintain contacts with national authorities and organisations
Tasks of University of Stellenbosch
Plan workshop details
Suggest and survey suitable workshop site
Co-ordinate field excursion, including report to be presented
Practical arrangements in connection with workshop
Planning, administration and reporting of expenses
Tasks of FAO
Arrange formal invitation to other countries to participate (with DWAF)
Travel arrangements for participants
Inform and maintain contacts with national authorities and organisations
Co-ordinate contribution to workshop report
Tasks of participating countries
Identify and invite national participants
Prepare country reports as below
Preparation of background material
FAO documents
1. To be distributed with invitation
- WP 25,27,28,... - available on web and will be distributed with invitation
2. To be distributed before workshop
- paper on information system prototype (possibly also a WP)
- paper on experiences so far on GFS development (possibly WP - state of the art)
- draft final summary of FRA 2000
Country reports
Country reports are to be submitted to FAO in electronic form no later than two weeks before the workshop.:
- FRA 2000 follow-up: Comments to FRA 2000 results, evaluation of FRA 2000 process from the country perspective, recommendations for future FAO assessments and proposal on improvement of current country information presented by FAO. (2-5 pages)
- Forestry information needs: Description of policy-related issues that require analyses and where relevant data are missing, Proposals on information variables to be collected in a systematic field survey of the GFS type to meet the information needs. (ca 5 pages)
- (South Africa only) Views on information system development: Processes that the system should support (eg Q&A, Data collection, storage, dissemination), Comments and proposals related to the information system prototype (information structure, functionality)
- (South Africa only) Documentation for field excursion: description of policy-related issues that will be discussed in the field, and brief introduction to sites that will be visited
