The reports on thematic areas are voluntary reporting tables on issues considered important by each individual country and where recent information on national level is available. As these tables may vary between countries, there are no predefined formats, but it is recommended that the information be organized in the report according to the common themes of the Criteria & Indicators processes. The thematic reporting should also take into consideration the importance of identifying trends, so when possible the thematic reports should follow the same reporting years as the standard reporting tables. It is also important to describe data sources, methodology, etc. in a similar way as for the standard reporting tables, so that the figures presented in the report are traceable back to original data.
Countries are also reporting to other international processes, conventions and fora on issues related to forestry. Important tables from these reports can also be reproduced in the FRA 2005 country report under Thematic Reporting, making the country report more comprehensive.
The UNFF session for 2005 will make a global evaluation of the progress in implementing sustainable forest management. Countries may wish to take the opportunity of including complementary information that show how the country is proceeding towards sustainable forest management in the FRA 2005 thematic reports.
Thematic reporting may, for example, cover issues such as:
• Ownership and access rights
• Area under management plans
• Area of forest under a forest certification scheme
• Etc.
These are of course only examples and the countries should feel free to include whatever theme they may consider important in the report.
