Join the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) and its lead partner, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), for a livestreamed event on the evolving context of national forest monitoring from 10.00 to 12.00 CET and 15.30 to 17.00 CET on 25 November 2024. To ask your questions in real time, register here for the morning webinar session and register here for the afternoon! Otherwise, tune in for the livestreams: click here to view in the morning and here for the afternoon.

These livestreamed sessions will open the weeklong series of workshops that FAO is hosting at its headquarters in Rome, Italy, from 25 to 28 November 2024 in collaboration with GFOI partners. The global forum, titled “Enhancing forest monitoring through global collaboration: A south-south knowledge exchange”, will see experts from tropical forest countries and the international community gather to discuss three key topics:

• Forest monitoring for transparent commodity value chains;
• Country-led planning (CLP) for better forest monitoring; and
• Forest monitoring and measurement, reporting and verification (MRV).

The opening event is being livestreamed so that the broader international community can gain exclusive insight into what is being achieved during these significant weeklong discussions. Moreover, viewers can expect the launch of multiple key knowledge products developed by GFOI partners.

The agenda for the livestreamed sessions are as follows:

Morning session: Webinar and livestream

• 10.00-10.30 CET: Opening and welcome - moderated by Julian Fox (FAO)
• Welcome address from FAO – Zhimin Wu (Forestry Director) and Anssi Pekkarinen (Senior Forestry Officer)
• Welcome address from the GFOI Leads Group - Ellen Bruzelius-Backer (GFOI Lead representative for Norway)
• Welcome address from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as the donor for the AIM4Forests project - Maggie Charnley and Tim McNeill (UK Government)
• Brief overview of the week
• 10.30-11.30 CET: Panel discussion and launching solutions: The evolving context of national forest monitoring - moderated by Till Neeff (FAO)
• Forest monitoring for transparent commodity value chains (20 minutes) - Rémi D'Annunzio (FAO) and Oscar Gutiérrez Ortega (Peru)
• Country-led planning for better forest monitoring (20 minutes) - Ellie Peneva-Reed (GFOI Office) and Apisai Rinamalo (Fiji)
• Forest monitoring and MRV (20 minutes) - Marieke Sandker (FAO), Hope Asiimwe (Uganda) and Osamu Ochiai (CEOS/JAXA)
• 11.30-12.00 CET: Q&A with the moderator and audience (30 minutes)

Afternoon session: Webinar and livestream

• 15.30-16.45 CET: Presentations and joint technical panel discussion: How do we get an operational, sustained and impactful national forest monitoring system (NFMS)? - moderated by Fiona Stringer (FAO)
• Setting the scene: an update from the UNFCCC (10 minutes) - Pierre Brender (UNFCCC Secretariat)
• Country presentations and perspectives (35 minutes) - Ahmad Faizan Bustomi (Indonesia); Alexandre Avelino (Brazil); Kenset Rosales, Tony Leal and Alberto Palencia (Guatemala); and Gabriela Nuñez Iturri (GFOI Office)
• Panel discussion: How can NFMSs support evolving contexts and new demands for forest monitoring? (30 minutes)
• 16.45-17.00 CET: Closing remarks - Thomas Harvey (GFOI Office) and Julian Fox (FAO)

Be sure to join us at these noteworthy kick-off sessions!

For more information on the entire south-south knowledge exchange taking place from 25 to 28 November 2024, please click here.