The sustainable management of Tunisia's natural resources faces growing challenges due to human pressure and growing environmental issues, including climate change. Sustainable management of natural resources requires precise and regularly updated information. These are the result of planned, coordinated and statistically robust work, based on the collection of field and remote sensing, socio-economic and biophysical information, at national and local levels.

Tunisia's last forest inventory was carried out over a decade ago. Data is not regularly updated and national plans, such as the framework of the 2015-2024 Regional Action Plan, as well as the tracking the country’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), are in critical need of accurate information. This should be done as part of the National Forests, Rangelands and Olives Inventory (IFPON) which is part of the integrated landscape management project (IFMP), under the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, financed by the World Bank.

The specific objectives of the project are to implement the general census of agriculture (RGA), to carry out the national forests, rangelands and olive inventory (IFPON) as well as to strengthen national technical capacities. This should allow the government to: adopt a strategic planning approach based on informed decision-making, develop policies taking into account the sustainable management of the agriculture and forestry sectors, prepare national and international reports, developing national capacities and assisting in monitoring impacts of projects and programs, and implement structural reforms as well as other objectives.

The project (UTF/TUN/041/TUN) was launched in January 2020 and will be implemented over four phases over four years. The first phase is preparatory. The second will focus on data collection. The third will concentrate on data analysis and the fourth for the dissemination of results.

One of the pillars of the national inventory is the national mapping of land cover types. The national land cover map will be carried out through field data collection, interpretation of high-resolution satellite images, using internationally recognized methodology and standards, such as ISO 19144-2, building on existing national land representation systems, and based on several decades technical expertise in monitoring and mapping natural resources. The national land cover map will provide the foundation for the integration of the biophysical and socio-economic information under IFPON, as well as to provide key information to support national plans and strategies and several SDG indicators.