Forests and the marvel of monitoring | GFOI Plenary 2025

With the theme “Forests and the marvel of monitoring”, the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry were pleased to host the GFOI Plenary 2025 from 21 to 23 October in Bali, Indonesia. Broader discussions focused on how countries can be best supported to leverage their forest monitoring capabilities for greenhouse gas estimation, forest fires, commodities, biodiversity and other forms of forest monitoring.

The GFOI Plenary is the major global gathering for countries, donors, development partners and practitioners working in the forest monitoring sector. This year’s plenary carried even greater significance, as it featured the official launch of the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2025 results – the authoritative global assessment on the condition, extent, management and use of the world’s forest resources led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

“Let us carry forward the spirit of collaboration and innovation that we have seen here in Bali, and work together to ensure that forests continue to thrive for generations to come," said Ellen Bruzelius Backer, Policy Director for Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative and GFOI Leads Group member.

To experience the essence of the week, watch this short video recap.

Bali vision: One forest, one purpose for collaborative forest monitoring

The plenary culminated in a shared vision calling for stronger collaboration across carbon, climate, biodiversity, fire, commodity and Indigenous monitoring communities. Participants emphasized that forests cannot be understood and effectively managed through a single perspective; combining scientific, technical and ancestral knowledge creates more complete, trusted systems.

A central theme was the need to align methodologies, harmonize reporting and ensure interoperable, transparent data. Participants noted that while passion and technical capacity are strong, institutional fragmentation, unsynchronized reporting cycles and data-sharing barriers can impede progress. Addressing inconsistent definitions, bureaucratic hurdles and siloed mandates will be critical.

The discussion highlighted that lasting collaboration begins at the technical level but requires political support to become sustainable. Country-led, institutionally anchored capacity building, South–South exchanges and open repositories were identified as essential to maintain knowledge beyond project cycles. Integrating Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives ensures monitoring systems not only measure change, but also support the living systems they observe.
Above all, the participants stressed that effective forest monitoring is relational: built on trust, shared learning, empathy and humility. By connecting science and spirit, communities can co-create systems that nurture both ecosystems and societies.

To read the full vision, download the complete statement here.

A week of dialogue, discovery and collaboration

The official opening on 21 October featured welcoming remarks from the Indonesian Government, FAO and the GFOI Leads Group, underscoring the importance of international cooperation to effectively manage the world’s forests. Morning sessions highlighted technical progress and emerging needs in forest monitoring, while afternoon discussions strengthened connections across monitoring initiatives. An FAO-hosted reception concluded the day with opportunities for networking.

On this day, the FRA 2025 results were also officially launched – marking a major milestone. The results showed that while the rate of deforestation is slowing, there is still a lot of work to do to halt forest loss and ultimately achieve net forest gain. The monitoring community under the GFOI plays a crucial role in supporting the provision of timely and reliable data to decision makers and forest managers, enabling them to take effective action to close this gap.

“If we look at the past 25 years, forest area has increased in most of the world’s regions. Furthermore, where it is declining, the rate of decrease is slowing down,” said Anssi Pekkarinen, FAO Senior Forestry Officer, in his presentation on the FRA 2025 key findings (see the presentation and recording).

On 22 October, a session on forest fire monitoring explored global satellite capabilities, regional trends and ways to integrate fire data into national systems. Parallel side events showcased technical innovations and country experiences. A plenary discussion on NFIs reinforced their role in supporting policy, climate and biodiversity objectives. Additional side events focused on near-real-time monitoring, uncertainty estimation and country progress stories. The day closed with a gala dinner featuring Balinese cultural performances.

Morning side events on 23 October addressed the links between forest monitoring, sustainable commodity production, transparency through NFI networks and capacity-building for national forest monitoring systems. Facilitated breakout groups allowed participants to reflect on cross-forum lessons and identify opportunities for collaboration. A report-back session consolidated insights, followed by closing remarks and a field visit to a local mangrove nursery demonstrating practical restoration efforts.

Participant profile: Who joined us?

The plenary was attended online by 469 participants via Zoom, while the daily livestreams accumulated over 1165 views. On-site, approximately 300 international technical experts, country representatives, partner organization representatives and FRA National Correspondents attended (see Figure 1 for an overview of participant industries). Nearly 80 countries were represented; to see the regional distribution of on-site participants, please see Figure 2.

Among the in-person participants, 29 percent were women and 21 percent were young professionals, reflecting the growing diversity and engagement of emerging experts within the forest monitoring community (see Figure 3 and 4 for the complete gender and age group distributions).