Forest Monitoring

Knowledge Exchange on Forest Monitoring for Transparent Commodity Value Chains

Hybrid Event, 26/11/2024 - 28/11/2024

This knowledge exchange will be an important opportunity to share experiences, advance learning and enable collaboration on geospatial information needs and forest monitoring for transparent commodity value chains and associated regulations (e.g., EUDR). Participants will come together to consider best practice, replicable solutions and coordinate on identifying the critical remaining shared gaps and needs. 

Participants will be those overseeing geospatial datasets at Forest Departments and Ministries of Agriculture from key producer countries, as well as consumer countries and other international entities. Forest countries participating currently include Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Peru, and Vietnam. 

This knowledge exchange is part of a wider global exchange. The Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) and its lead partner the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), under the UK-funded Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests (AIM4Forests) Programme, are hosting a collaborative south-south knowledge exchange forum on national forest monitoring throughout the whole week - Enhancing Forest Monitoring and Collaboration; A South-South Knowledge Exchange [https://www.fao.org/gfoi/news-events/events/events-detail/en/c/1713242/].  

Registration is through invitation only, through this link. All registered attendees will receive a private zoom link. 

Agenda: 

TUESDAY, 26 November | The Austria Room. Lebanon Room for breakout. 

Goal for the day: Provide an overview and share lessons learned, best practices, replicable solutions and gaps, needs relating to compliance with regulations and geospatial information, traceability, due diligence, measurements/monitoring and information needs around legality 

Time  

Item 

Name / Lead 

09.30  

Arrivals, coffees 

10:00  

Welcome and introductions, background, context and framing – setting the scene, presenting on background paper 

R. d’Annunzio (FAO) 

A. Haouchine (EU DG-ENV) 

10.30 

Country presentations, reflections and dialogue – general lessons learned in preparation for regulations 

Kenya – Global Coffee Platform (30mins, including Q&A) 

Brazil – AgroBrasil+ Sustentavel (30mins, including Q&A) 

Colombia – Café de Colombia (30mins, including Q&A) 

 

G. Watene   

C. Saraiva 

A. Veru 

12:00 

Buffet lunch at the 8th floor cafeteria – self service 

 

14.00 

Breakout: Data Readiness  

Group One – Austria Room, with interpretation 

Group Two – Lebanon Room, without interpretation  

This group will focus on the technical aspects of data preparation and application. It will cover topics including – data quality, traceability systems, geolocation of plots of land, maps of forests, deforestation and commodities, monitoring and measurement systems, convergence of evidence approach, and assessment framework on deforestation-free commodities. 

Will include discussion on FAO work on due diligence and risk mitigation - building upon various aspects such as geolocation, forest maps, deforestation data, and measurement systems - how to effectively use forest monitoring data within the due diligence process. 

V. O’Brien 

A. Arnell 

F. Bernard 

R. Dannunzio 

M. Valbuena Perez 

 

15:00 

Coffee break 

15.30 

Continue breakout group on Data Readiness, including (in last e.g., 30mins) synthesising discussions into key points for relaying on Thursday – highlighting key shared gaps and needs identified, solutions, recommendations and any prioritisation, and identifying presenter 

 

16.30 

Closing 

 

17:30 

Appetizers and cocktails reception at FAO rooftop – Russian Lounge 

 


 

WEDNESDAY, 27 November | The Austria Room. Nigeria for breakout room.  

Goal for the day: Create a more detailed picture of shared experiences among forest countries and international partners on meeting information needs from demand-side regulations, and capacity development required for meeting these needs. Breakout groups focused on data governance 

Time  

Item 

Name / Lead 

09.30  

Arrivals, coffees 

09:45  

Welcome and introductions  

 

10.00 

International initiatives in preparation for regulations (I) 

TEI: SAFE project (15 mins) 

TEI: Technical Facility (15 mins) 

Germany BLE (15 mins) 

FACT Dialogue (15 min)

QA (30 mins) 

J. Espinoza  

C. Riano  

N. Langner 

H. Djoudi

11:30 

International initiatives in preparation for regulations (II) 

ITC – Deforestation-Free Trade Gateway platform (15 mins) 

World AgroCommodities Project (15 mins) 

JRC: EU observatory on deforestation and forest degradation and Copernicus4GEOGLAM (20 min)

Forest Data Partnership – Governance & Sharing (15 mins) 

 

G. Sampson  

C. Sannier  

R. Colditz and T. De Marzo  

S. Tenorio Fenton  

12:30 

Buffet lunch at the 8th floor cafeteria – self service  

14:00 

Breakout: Data Governance  

Group One – Austria Room with interpretation 

Group Two – Nigeria without interpretation 

 

These breakout groups will cover regulatory, ethical and governance-related topics for managing and sharing data. This will include themes such as data access, data ownership, data privacy, risk analysis, mitigation and the use of forest monitoring data within due diligence (including traceability systems), information needs linked to legality, and long-term sustainability of practices. 

S. Pechevis 

S. Tenorio Fenton  

F. Bernard 

F. Stringer 

M. Valbuena Perez

15:00 

Coffee break 

15:30 

Continue breakout group on Data Governance, including (in last e.g., 30mins) synthesising discussions into key points for relaying tomorrow – highlighting key shared gaps and needs identified, solutions, recommendations and any prioritisation, and identifying presenter 

 

16:30 

Closing 

 


 

THURSDAY, 28 November | The Austria Room.  

Goal for the day: Define and prioritise shared solutions and capacity development recommendations regarding information needs for demand-side deforestation-related regulations 

Time  

Item 

Name / Lead 

09:30  

Arrivals, coffees 

10:00  

Summarising outcomes of the breakout group discussions 

Assigned speaker from each breakout groups gives presentation on summary of discussions (20-30mins each, covering both topics of data readiness and data governance) – including key gaps and needs identified, solutions, best practices, recommendations 

Faruk Kwansah Nyame 

Charles Yem Bamo

Helen Bellfield

Koimé Kouacou 

11:30 

Whiteboard activity  

Interactive group session to confirm identified gaps/barriers and solutions/recommendations from the breakout group discussions, and indicate prioritisation  

Benjamin Wielgosz (WRI) 

12:15 

Closing remarks  

 

12:30 

Buffet lunch at the 8th floor cafeteria – self service 

FINISH – afternoon available for attendees to arrange bilateral discussions, meetings  

 

This workshop is co-organized between the FAO and the Forest Data Partnership, hosted by the FAO, with funding from United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland through the AIM4Forests Programme.  

Co-organizers