Global Forest Resources Assessment

Revised Terms of Reference for the FAO Advisory Group on Global Forest Resources Assessments

FAO has, on request from its member countries, implemented global forest resources assessments since 1947 in collaboration with countries and other partners. To implement this mandate, FAO regularly seeks broad guidance from a large number of national and international experts and agencies. The most significant of these consultations have been held in Kotka, Finland with support from the Government of Finland and partner organizations such as UNEP and the UNECE. These consultations are generally known as Kotka I, II, III etc.

Kotka IV “Global Forest Resources Assessments –linking national and international efforts”, held in July 2002, reviewed progress in assessing the status and trends of the world's forests and discussed future global forest resources assessments.
Among its many important recommendations was the suggestion that FAO establish an advisory group to the FRA process to provide technical guidance and to finalize specifications of future global forest resource assessments, in line with the discussions held at the 15th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO) in Rome in March 2001. The sixteenth session of COFO, held in March 2003 endorsed the major recommendations of Kotka IV, including the establishment of an advisory group on global forest resources assessments.
The Advisory Group (AG) is informal in nature. It is a long-term arrangement with meetings anticipated to take place annually. Specifically, the Advisory Group will be asked to review and make recommendations aimed to strengthen existing institutional networks, to make future forest resources assessments increasingly user-oriented and demand-driven and more closely linked with other international processes. More specifically, the AG will carry out the following tasks,

1. Advise FAO and its partners on the implementation impacts of the broad recommendations of the expert consultations on forest resource assessments, such as those held in Kotka.
2. Advise on how FRA can support SFM
3. Advise on the strategic planning, organization, process and time frame of FRAs.
4. Advise on technical matters related with forest inventory or assessment including variables for FRA.
5. Advise on the scope, content and reporting format for FRA
6. Advise on communication processes and meetings between stakeholders in the FRA process, including regional arrangements, expert consultations and links with other international forest-related processes including those related to criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.
7. Advise on the role and terms of reference of the national correspondents to FRA.
8. Formulate and regularly update a multiyear work plan.
9. Any other FRA related task approved by the AG.