Nigeria began engaging in the GFOI Country Led Planning (CLP) process with the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) in 2025. Federal authorities, sub national representatives, academia, civil society and GFOI partners have come together to discuss pathways for institutionalizing the National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS). One of the identified steps, as part of the CLP Programme of Support, is to facilitate the implementation of the CLP Functional Gap Assessment tool.
Nigeria has a partially developed and still evolving National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS), largely shaped by REDD+ readiness efforts. Core technical components exist, including a Satellite Land Monitoring System, a National Forest (Carbon) Inventory and integration with the national greenhouse gas inventory for the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector.
Key strengths of the NFMS include significant technical groundwork laid through support from UN REDD, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), AIM4Forests and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), a growing cadre of trained experts in federal agencies and universities, and experience with a nested national–subnational approach, notably in Cross River State. The Climate Change Act (2021) and the National REDD+ Strategy (2021) provide important policy entry points, while emerging initiatives such as Natural Capital Accounting and external drivers like the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) create additional incentives to strengthen forest monitoring.
At the request of the Government of Nigeria, twenty-nine technical experts and government officials gathered in Abuja, Nigeria, for a workshop led by the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) to connect and collaborate in the context of its
