FAO and Norway launch partnership to strengthen global forest monitoring and data

Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Norway have signed an agreement for a partnership aimed at transforming global forest monitoring and strengthening forest data over the next three years.

With USD 5.97 million from Norway’s Ministry of Climate and the Environment, the partnership will modernize and accelerate the collection, analysis and dissemination of forest data worldwide.

Countries will be invited and supported to voluntarily submit and share new forest data as soon as they become available, moving beyond the standard five-year cycle for gathering, updating and publishing global data in FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA).

The project will also deliver an upgraded digital platform, including interactive visualizations, multilingual options and a documented application programming interface, making FRA data easier to understand and more widely usable by policymakers, educators, media and the general public.

“Norway has long supported countries in their efforts to reduce deforestation. By modernizing global forest data together with FAO, we are strengthening the foundation for transparent reporting and more effective climate and forest policies worldwide, ” said Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway.

“By fostering transparency and innovation, the project will help countries make evidence-based decisions to protect forests, combat climate change, and promote sustainable development for future generations,” said Zhimin Wu, Assistant Director-General and Director of FAO’s Forestry Division.  “The more we can improve forest monitoring and data, the better we can support monitoring progress towards the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement and the UN Strategic Plan for Forests.”

Pushing the boundaries

By leveraging the latest remote sensing technologies and artificial intelligence, the project will also empower countries to use FAO Global Remote Sensing Survey methodology to monitor land-use changes and forest dynamics more efficiently and accurately.

The FRA Remote Sensing Survey complements information collected through the FRA country reporting process with global and regional analysis of the world’s forest resources.

The project will develop e-learning modules and guidance for countries on customization, and will organize capacity building workshops to support the use of FRA Remote Sensing Survey methods and tools.

Finally, targeted research will address information gaps and introduce new innovations for reporting in areas such as primary forests, forest degradation, wildfires and mountain ecosystems.

Global Forest Resources Assessment

Issued every five years, FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment is an essential resource for understanding long-term trends in forest resources and how they relate to global goals and targets, including those on biodiversity, climate and sustainable land use.

The most recent assessment, FRA 2025, revealed that deforestation has slowed in all the world’s regions, more than half of forests now covered by long-term management plans, and one fifth of forests now being within legally established protected areas.

However, the report also underlined that forest ecosystems worldwide continue to face challenges, with 10.9 million hectares still being lost each year to deforestation.