Forest Monitoring

FAO at the frontline in monitoring forests and ecosystems

Every year 10 million hectares of forest are lost to deforestation.

In response, world leaders have committed to halt deforestation and restore 1 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030.

To achieve this, countries need the right data to measure progress and enable action on the ground.

FAO’s Forest Monitoring team works to bridge this gap by:

  • Developing new solutions driven by innovation and technology 
  • Deploying inclusive capacity development approaches to empower anyone, anywhere 
  • Collecting, analysing and reporting of forest data 
  • Accelerating the protection, restoration and sustainable use of forests
Highlights

14/2

2025

Hybrid Event, 14/02/2025

We are thrilled to introduce the Private Sector Brown Bag Lunches series – a new initiative by the FAO Private Sector Partnerships Unit, in collaboration with private sector entities, to...

28/11

2024

Virtual Event, 28/11/2024

Join the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) and its lead partner, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), for the webinar “Enhancing national forest monitoring systems for climate action: Tools, plans and approaches” on 28 November 2024 fr...

Institutionalization of Forest data - Learning Journey
29/10/2025

The institutionalization of forest data (IFD) learning journey aims to create a well-defined pathway for optimizing the use of forest data while...

AIM4Commodities - Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests and Commodities
01/12/2025

AIM4Commodities (Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests and Commodities) is a global initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organization...

Blog
06/02/2026 Pilar Valbuena, Victoria O’Brien, Till Neeff, Erik Lindquist, Andreas Vollrath, Javier Garcia-Perez Gamarra, Remi D’Annunzio, Jingjing Liang, and Julian Fox

Across virtually all industries and fields, artificial intelligence (AI) is a transformative force. The same is true for forestry, where AI is reshaping how forests are monitored, managed, restored, and integrated into global supply chains.

Publications
Towards the institutionalization of forest data – The importance of data management and sharing
29/10/2025

This publication explores how countries can improve forest data governance by institutionalizing data management and sharing within national forest...

Assessment of drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in West Africa
20/06/2025

This report presents the methodology and main findings of an assessment conducted between 2015 and 2020 to identify the primary drivers of deforestation...

Enhancing Ghana’s forest monitoring system for climate action through AIM4Forests
01/04/2025

Ghana’s commitment to sustainable forest management and climate action has been further strengthened through the assessment of needs and gaps. The application...

Enhancing sustainable forest management and climate action through the national forest monitoring system in Kenya
21/03/2025

Kenya’s National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) supports sustainable forest management and climate action by providing accurate data to guide decisions...

Strengthening forest data transparency with a national monitoring system in Lao People’s Democratic Republic
21/03/2025

This publication highlights Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS), which supports REDD+, results-based payments,...

Slowly getting there: a review of country experience on estimating emissions and removals from forest degradation
26/11/2024

Estimating emissions and removals from forest degradation is important, yet challenging, for many countries. This paper reports results from analysis...

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