FAO launches new project to help countries advance forest monitoring for transparent commodity value chains

Rome – 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.

The three-year project, Accelerating innovative monitoring for forests and commodities (AIM4Commodities), is funded by USD 1.4 million from the German Agency for International Cooperation.

It will boost the development and deployment of Open Foris Whisp, a platform to ensure smallholder farmers and Indigenous Peoples can maintain sustainable practices and demonstrate compliance with regulated markets. This is critical for livelihoods and contributes to the transformation of sustainable agrifood systems.

“This new project will standardise the use of geospatial data and develop good practices in traceability solutions, enabling key stakeholders to address a lack of geolocation data and enable access to information toward ensuring continued market access to the most vulnerable stakeholders,” said Senior FAO Forestry Officer Julian Fox.

The development of Whisp is a collaborative effort between partners and programmes such as the European Union’s Team Europe Initiative, the Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests programme (AIM4Forests) and the Forest Data Partnership.

South-South exchange driving progress in forest monitoring

Some 120 participants are attending Enhancing forest monitoring and collaboration: a South-South Knowledge exchange, organized by the Global Forest Observations Initiative and FAO, under the AIM4Forests programme.

The event is part of a major effort by FAO to accelerate the role of technology and innovation in driving progress, a key priority of the FAO Forestry Roadmap From vision to action 2024-2031.

Through a series of discussions, workshops, presentations and panel events, the meeting will focus on three key areas: forest monitoring for transparent commodity value chains, country-led planning for national forest monitoring systems; and forest monitoring and measurement, reporting and verification. 

New dashboards and inclusive capacity development material launched

During the South-South exchange, a number of new products to ensure equitable and inclusive access to capacity, data and information. 

FAO launched two new dashboards:

• An MRV Dashboard, which provides a transparent overview of how countries are reducing deforestation and degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks and reducing emissions, as well as information on the methods and data they are using. The dashboard is the first of its kind and ensures equitable and inclusive access to data and information on Forest MRV.
• The WHISP Dashboard, which offers a public facing solution to support compliance with demand-side trade regulations. More information on the new dashboard can be found here.
  

New multi-language e-learning courses were also launched this week:

• Delivering restoration outcomes for biodiversity and human well-being 
• Measurement, reporting and verification for environmental integrity
  

New self-assessment tools were also launched:

• A national forest monitoring systems (NFMS) self-assessment tool designed to help countries conduct comprehensive capacity assessments of their forest monitoring systems. The tool is based on FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on National Forest Monitoring (VGNFM).
• A new jurisdictional forest carbon standards assessment tool aims to assist countries in evaluating the compliance of their potential forest-related greenhouse gas emission reductions and removals with carbon accounting standards.
• A self-assessment tool for evaluating which geospatial information for deforestation-related regulations is already existing and lacking at the country level.