At the request of its member countries, FAO has been carrying out global forest resources assessments (FRA) since 1947, in collaboration with countries and other partners, notably the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The global FRA reports on the worldwide status and trends of forest resources, their management and uses. It is based on nationally validated data from national forest inventories and assessments. The FRA reports also include analytical assessments (trends and valuations) of goods, services and stock of forests.
The latest assessment, the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000) constitutes the most comprehensive and accessible global reporting on forest resources to date. The main report, on-line country profiles, global maps and a series of Working Papers are all available on the Web (www.fao.org/forestry/fra).
The main report of FRA 2000 concluded that there are still major gaps in information on forests and forestry and that basic parameters such as forest area and forest biomass cannot be accurately and reliably estimated for most countries, despite the considerable attention, that forestry has received internationally over the past decade. Indeed, demand for forest information has never been greater or more complex than now, with international fora requesting countries to report regularly on multiple functions of forests across social, economic and ecological dimensions, and civil society becoming increasingly concerned about the state and trends of forests stocks, goods and services.
The next global FRA is scheduled for 2005 and it will utilise the framework of Criteria and Indicator (C&I) processes for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). It plans to contribute to the discussions at the fifth meeting of the United Nations of Forests (UNFF) in 2005 and to help in the evaluation of progress made by countries towards SFM. A more comprehensive global assessment report will be published around 2010.
The global FRA contributes to the improvement of concepts, definitions and methods related to forest resources assessments. Efforts are made to harmonize and streamline reporting with other international forest-related processes within the framework of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, as well as with the process of “harmonization of forest-related definitions”. The assessment is expected to help in reduction of the reporting burden on countries by providing globally harmonised information required by regional and international processes and agreements. The main objectives of the global FRA assessment 2005 are:
• to provide consistent, precise, accurate and high-quality information on the status and trends of forest resources worldwide, to facilitate improved policies related to forests and forest management;
• to help countries view their forest sector within regional and global environmental and socio-economic contexts;
• to provide some of the validated and harmonized data required for monitoring and assessment by international processes;
• to provide data that can be used in technical studies and in support of investment decisions and private-sector development;
• to present relevant information on forests to wider communities, including other sectors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and public in general.
Future global FRAs are expected to maintain and publish validated and harmonized national, regional and global data for key parameters (a core set global variables) as well as for complementary thematic variables required to explain country-specific conditions. Most of the primary data is expected to come from member countries through an established network of officially nominated national correspondents. Some of the data sets may originate from complementary sources, such as independent remote-sensing surveys. The incorporation of national information into the global database will be undertaken collaboratively between countries and FAO, and will be transparent and well documented to ensure credibility and consistency.
The global forest resources assessment receives its mandate from COFO and the FAO Council, technical guidance from expert consultations at Kotka, Finland (see e.g. www.fao.org/forestry/fra-Kotka4) and detailed specifications and advice from its advisory group (www.fao.org/forestry/fra-ag). In line with recommendations from these entities, FRA 2005 the next global assessment will be a broad and holistic assessment of forest resources (stocks, functions and benefits) and its overall conceptual framework will be defined by the common “Criteria” (Thematic Areas) of the nine regional “C&I for SFM” processes.
Last international expert consultation (“Kotka IV”) in July 2002 recommended enhancing the role of countries, institutionalising the system of national correspondents (NC) including improvement of their capacities. It also recommended to synergise the FRA framework with the framework of Criteria & Indicator (C&I) processes that is common to all the nine regional/international C&I processes, This recommendation was echoed back and reinforced at the international conference on “C&I for SFM” in February 2003.
Committee on Forestry (COFO) further endorsed these recommendations from both Kotka IV and C&I 2003, in March 2003, where countries formally asked FAO to develop a broadened update of FRA for 2005 along these lines. This endorsement from COFO 2003 included establishment of an Advisory Group to global FRA process that is continuously elaborating the global contents of FRA between key stakeholders. Its advice has strongly influenced the assessment process as well as the contents of FRA 2005. The FRA 2005 has also benefited from the outcomes of the two meeting on harmonizing forest-related definitions organized by FAO and partners (CIFOR, IPCC, IUFRO, UNEP, and WMO). The implementation of these recommendation by FRA process has led to development of four basic draft documents (Guide Lines for Country Reporting, National Reporting, Terms and Definition, and Specifications of Global Tables) for consideration by countries and experts.
