Forest Monitoring

10/02/2025
The Open Foris Arena platform, a free and open-source solution, has reached a new milestone with the launch of Arena 2.0. This latest version introduces significant enhancements, making it easier to capture, store, manage, and process survey data in a secure, web-based platform—representing a major step forward in how we monitor and manage forest survey data worldwide.
06/12/2024
An FAO hybrid webinar Enhancing national forest monitoring systems for climate action: Tools, plans and approaches, supported by the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI), was conducted as part of the South-South knowledge exchange on enhancing forest monitoring in collaboration with the Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests (AIM4Forests) programme.
06/12/2024
More than 150 experts from across the globe convened in Rome, Italy, from 25 to 28 November 2024 to enhance collaboration on forest monitoring efforts. The south-south knowledge exchange  emphasized collaboration on country-led planning; forest monitoring and measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) procedures; and forest monitoring for transparent commodity value chains. 
03/12/2024
The recent webinar, Learning Opportunities for All: Forest Monitoring for Climate Action, that took place on December 26 at FAO headquarters, convened global experts and participants, including 128 online attendees and around 50 in-person participants, to explore FAO's approach to strengthening capacities in forest monitoring. The session showcased significant progress in eLearning resources particularly for National Forest Inventories (NFIs).
FAO launches public dashboard solutions to support compliance with deforestation-related trade regulations
27/11/2024
To enhance a digital public infrastructure for deforestation-related trade regulations, FAO has developed a suite of innovative solutions to help smallholders, decision-makers, operators and third party verification actors to assess the deforestation risk related to commodity production at the plot level.  
27/11/2024
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched a new project to help countries improve their forest-related data at a four-day South-South knowledge exchange taking place in Rome this week.
14/11/2024

In response to the pressing need for durable forest-based climate solutions, FAO has released a new publication titled "Options for addressing the risk of non-permanence for land-based mitigation in ca...

07/11/2024

To advance sustainable forest management, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in partnership with Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and with funding support from the European Union delegation in Freetown, conducted an in-depth training program in Kenema for the country’s first National Forest Inventory (NFI). The program was designed to equip local experts with critical knowledge and state-of-the-art forest measurement tools for effective data collection. 

01/11/2024

On 30 October 2024, hundreds of delegates and observers of the 16th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity gathered at Restoration Day, to learn about and discuss the latest developments in partnerships, monitoring tools, implementation and innovative finance for achieving Target 2 of the Global Biodiversity Framework under the Convention. Under this target, countries committed to restore 30% of degraded ecosystems – across all ecosystem types, terrestrial and aquatic, until 2030. If achieved, this target will be critical across all three UN Rio Conventions – in addition to reversing biodiversity loss, ecosystem restoration is synergetic for meeting the Paris Climate Agreement and the Land Degradation Neutrality Goals. 

17/10/2024
Rural youth are the next generation of forest and farm producers, and they are at the heart of a food-secure future. As participants heard at the World Food Forum at FAO Headquarters in Rome today, they have much to offer and are essential in global sustainable production efforts, with their decisions directly impacting agricultural and forest landscapes and ecosystems. 
16/10/2024

FAO today launched two new solutions for countries to monitor and report progress towards the conservation and sustainable management of mountain ecosystems. The user-friendly solutions are designed to help countries analyse Earth Observation data for their territories and extract information on changes in the extent of mountain ecosystems. This information is needed to assess global progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15, Life on Land. The first solution, based on FAO’s platform SEPAL (System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring),

11/10/2024
Forests provide essential services to humanity and the planet, including climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and supporting livelihoods for millions of people, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities. However, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate, threatening these critical services. To reverse this trend and support informed decision-making, many countries are creating or improving their national forest inventories (NFIs) as they represent a powerful tool that offers reliable, comprehensive data on the status of forest ecosystems.  
24/09/2024
Forests are crucial for absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, but accurately measuring this has been a challenge, especially for countries with limited resources for large-scale forest monitoring. AIM4Forests, a programme launched by FAO and funded by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, seeks to address this issue by leveraging modern technologies like space data, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence (AI).
11/09/2024
The National Forest Inventory (NFI) online facilitated course officially begins today following an overwhelming international interest. A total of 2 520 participants from 141 countries have registered, signaling strong international interest to enhance skills in forest data collection, analysis and reporting.
29/08/2024
The Network of National Forest Inventories of Latin America and the Caribbean, chaired by Mexico through the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), together with the technical secretariat of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), organized a virtual exchange to present the experiences of Mexico, Panama, and Guatemala in the involvement of local communities in the collection of field data for National Forest Inventories (NFIs).
05/08/2024
On July 26, 2024, the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) and World Forestry Week (WFW) hosted a key side event  "Accelerating Innovation for Forest Data Transparency." The event spotlighted the essential role of transparent and accurate forest data in addressing deforestation and fostering sustainable forest management. 
29/07/2024
Rome - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO’s) groundbreaking open-source technical solutions Open Foris and SEPAL have jointly won a prestigious Google Geo for Good Impact Award. 
24/07/2024
Rome, The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today signed a new partnership agreement aimed at streamlining ecosystem restoration reporting as part of Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Fram...
Unveiling Forest Transparency: Collaborative Milestones at the Global Transparency Forum
05/06/2024
From May 20-22, 2024, Tokyo hosted an important event on the climate action calendar—the Global Transparency Forum and the subsequent Support Providers' Meeting. These gatherings are contributing to international efforts to enhance forest data transparency under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement. As we move towards the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP) in November 2024, the implications of these discussions resonate even more strongly.
05/05/2024
The European Union's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) represents a step to reduce deforestation by mandating that companies and producers demonstrate that their products have not contributed to deforestation. However, the effectiveness of such regulatory frameworks relies on the accuracy and reliability of the data used to demonstrate compliance. Herein lies the importance of Open Foris Ground, a collaborative solution developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Google, aimed at enhancing data collection and validation processes.