In late 2005, FAO published the findings of the global Forest Resources Assessment – FRA 2005 – which assembled an unprecedented volume of country-specific information on seven key thematic elements of sustainable forest management.
Earlier conclusions regarding poor information availability in FRA 2000 was reconfirmed in 2005. Most developing countries had difficulty reporting because their national monitoring systems are not adequate – neither for international reporting nor to meet domestic needs. Poor data quality remains an issue in many countries and for a large proportion of the world forests.
Generally, developing countries lack national norms for forest inventories. In most cases, information from subsequent inventories are not compared because of differences in methods and techniques. Comprehensive and representative information on forests and the management and uses of forest resources is therefore still missing in many countries. Information is frequently outdated, partial or subjective, and in most cases data precision and accuracy are unknown. Most countries also lack the capacity (financial and expertise) to carry out nationwide inventories of forests and trees.
As a result of insufficient forest information and poor data quality, scenario development and planning regarding forest management may not be accurate. Consequently, forest policies are not in tune with real conditions and the needs of users, in particular the needs of rural populations.
Information improvement was also targeted by the Intergovernmental Panel of Forest (IPF), the Intergovernmental Forum of Forest (IFF) and the Committee on Forestry (COFO) as an area of significant importance towards better forest policy formation. All three have emphasized the need for policy frameworks and institutional arrangements that foster the participation of civil society in forest decision-making and improved cooperation across sectors based on enhanced data collection, assessment and reporting on forests.
The IPF/IFF proposals for action underscored the need to improve data collection of full range of goods and services of all types of forests and trees outside forest boundaries based on rapid, cost effective and policy oriented methods. Emphasis was made for integrated and holistic multidisciplinary approaches incorporating cross-cutting issues, technology transfer and capacity building.
COFO requested FAO to assist countries to strengthen capacity for conducting national forest assessments and building forest information systems.
FAO supports countries to close the existing knowledge gap by working in national partnerships in implementing systematic field inventories, establishing forest information services, and thus enabling enhanced analyses of the forest sector for the country as a whole. This provides a basis for analyses and planning at the national level, broadens the knowledge base on forests and forestry in the country, and helps enhance national capacities to monitor forest developments. The programme has been named Support to National Forest Assessments (NFA).
The assessments place local uses of forests and trees in the center, thus focussing on information related to real world management decisions and factors affecting these decisions. Statistical rigour makes it possible to aggregate findings to the national level. The approach creates new knowledge not only about overall national averages of important variables, but also on variations in these within the country. Furthermore, it will be possible to identify and quantify interactions and interdependencies in forest uses. In conclusion, the approach can help improve analyses of the national forest sector and provide a sound basis for policy development and monitoring.
According to the above, an Expert Consultation was held in Rome in November 2006 (see Annexes 1, 2, and 3), to identify strategies on how to better understand the role of national forest assessments (NFA) in the process of information and knowledge generation and to eventually better link forest information procurement with national policy processes, or integrate NFAs into these processes.
The main objective of the meeting is to seek and establish linkages between national forest assessments and policy development processes.
Specifically, the Expert Consultation will focus on the following objectives:
• POLICY DEVELOPMENT: Defining the requirements of national policies and other decision making processes to guide the evolvement and adaptation of NFAs. (i.e. policy processes, information needs and gaps, follow up, etc)
• NFA IMPROVEMENT: Provide guidance on ways to improve the NFA approach to better link generated knowledge on forest, trees and land uses to policy development processes (see Annex 4A).
• INFORMATION PACKAGING: Provide guidance on how to present the information and results of the NFAs to make them accessible to policy and decision makers (see Annex 4B).
• FAO ADVISORY ROLE: Advise FAO on ways to improve its advisory role to countries for knowledge generation, information management and capacity building.
• GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORK: Advise on opportunities and needs for creating and maintaining a knowledge network on national forest assessments and inventories.
1. Improved understanding of forestry and land use policy requirements and linkages between policy processes and NFA
2. Identified information needs for livelihood and forestry policies
3. Enhanced understanding of the process of decision making at the national levels
4. Identified interface mechanisms of information flow from NFAs to different levels of decision makers for better NFA adaptation
5. Advice on an array of actions by the NFA to influence all levels of decision making and policy processes
6. Redefined FAO Role in introducing new approaches, technologies and advice to countries on how to improve NFA support to member countries
7. Establishment of a knowledge network of NFA experts
8. Advice on how to communicate NFA data according to different audiences
