The conclusions emerging from the workshop were:
1. For most countries, reliable information is available on forest areas, growing stock and production of wood, but there remains difficulties in quantifying and valuing the contribution of forest and woodlands in terms of NWFPs provided by forests;
2. Within countries, participants had experienced problems in accessing information from sister ministries, NGOs, projects and the private sector. Particular problems of weak governance were experienced by countries which have been in civil strife;
3. Nevertheless, all the National Correspondents committed themselves to delivering complete reports by Dec 2004 at the latest;
4. With regard information on NWFPs and employment in the forest sector, it was recognised that data quality is poor or non-existent in most of the participating countries.
