Global forest resources assessments have been carried out by FAO since 1948 that is practically since FAO was created. The mandate for such assessments stems both from the basic statues of FAO (FAO 2003a), and to guidance given by member countries, most significantly at sessions of the Committee on Forestry “COFO” (www.fao.org/forestry/cofo).
The Kotka IV expert consultation in July 2002 (www.fao.org/forestry/kotka4) defined the scope and approach of future FRAs and recommended that they should be structured along the framework of “Criteria” common to the nine regional processes on Criteria and Indicators (C&I) for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). This recommendation has been reinforced by the international conference on C&I for SFM in February 2003 (www.fao.org/forestry/crit-ind) and COFO in March 2003. This development represents a strong move to establish linkages between politically defined C&I and technically specified FRA. This helps to define the objective of the global FRA more clearly to make it possible to review sustainability of forests at the global level.
