An important component of the Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) is to assist selected countries to generate better information about their forest resources using new tools and freely available satellite images. This is achieved through a series of capacity development workshops in countries that request technical support from FAO as well as in coordination with other FAO Forestry activities. 

One of the selected countries for the FRA 2020 capacity building activities was Zimbabwe, where FRA started a collaboration with the national Forestry Commission in 2017. The intended outcome of the capacity development activities is that through technology transfer and training in how to use satellite imagery to monitor forests, Zimbabwe will be able to generate maps and up to date data on forest area and changes. The first capacity building workshop took place in Harare from 11 to 17 October 2017. 

The workshop was followed by remote technical support and activities have been planned to be completed in another national workshop to be held in Zimbabwe in the next months. 

The same activities were carried out in a second workshop in Trinidad (20 to 24 November 2017) to support experts from 11 Caribbean countries, namely Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.