The main objective of the workshop was to build and strengthen the capacity of the National Correspondents with respect to compilation of country reports for FRA 2005 and to inform them of FAO’s approach to planning and undertaking national forest assessments (NFA), including the creation of an information base for national and international reporting obligations, as well as the setting up of a long term resource monitoring system for policy making and planning processes. This approach uses field data from a low-intensity sampling at national level. The field sampling can be supplemented by mapping as proposed under the present application. Through this approach, a range of biophysical and socio-economic variables, with an emphasis on management, use and users of the resources, will be covered. The approach also aims at strengthening the capability of the forestry administration and related institutions and organisations for collecting information on forests and trees resources to enable planning for sustainable forest management.
Land cover classification and definitions pose great challenges to most African countries and the NFA approach has the potential to align existing national land cover/land use classifications with the global classification thereby harmonising different reporting processes. Guidance was also given to participants on how to develop projects to support the implementation of NFA programmes. Some basic parameters were suggested for:
Type of projects: either national project designed for separate countries or regional projects with national components.
Preconditions: commitment of each country to invest in forest resources monitoring, capacity building and maintenance, and information management, and to work together in a regional approach when requested.
Timeframe: 18 months to three years.
Moderate Cost: e.g. US$ 200,000 – 800,000 in which countries contribute about 50 percent in kind.
Participants were advised to:
• Consider the use of trust funds using national funding sources
• Cost-sharing arrangements through multilateral cooperation
• Submit draft TCP requests to FAO following the TCP guidelines and incorporating cost sharing by the country;
• Prepare draft project proposal in collaboration with a group of countries to initiate the NFA process through sub regional workshops using GEF funding (PDF A);
• Using GEF PDF B funding, groups of countries could prepare full size project documents for GEF.
The workshop participants saw this approach as a vehicle for initiating an information base according to national and international requirements and as a basis for the preparation of future FRA activities. Linking country policy and planning requirements with international information requirements was seen to be crucial given the limited human and financial resources of the participating countries. All countries expressed an interest in initiating NFAs in their respective countries. Of the seventeen countries that participated, six (Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana and Zambia) have already submitted their request for NFA assistance to FAO.
The following were additional objectives of the workshop and they were all achieved:
- Review country drafts reports for FRA 2005;
- Address problems that countries were experiencing with respect to compiling country reports according to the FRA 2005 guidelines for reporting;
- Identify information gaps; draft a time table for the final submission of the country reports; and
- Formulate conclusions and recommendations for future FRA activities
