FAO Feature Story

AIM4Forests: One year of impact

22/04/2024

One year ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland embarked on an ambitious journey to combat deforestation and forest degradation through more and better information on forests. Earth Day 2023 saw the launch of AIM4Forests: Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests – a transformative five-year programme designed to empower countries in implementing robust, accessible, sustainable, and relevant forest monitoring. With a commitment of £24.5 million, AIM4Forests is an important part of the UK's International Climate Finance commitment to protect and restore forests.

As we commemorate the programme’s first year of implementation on Earth Day 2024, let’s reflect on the advances made through forest monitoring technical support to forest countries.

The motivation: Protect and restoration of forests

Addressing and reversing deforestation is more important than ever. Over 420 million hectares of forest have been lost since 1990, with 10 million hectares still lost annually. Recognizing this challenge, world leaders committed to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 at the UN's climate talks in Glasgow in 2021. A significant impediment to progress has been the lack of comprehensive and accurate data. AIM4Forests sets out to change this through technical innovation – along with dedicated technical assistance to forest countries, based on four pillars of intervention:

Information on forest for better resource management
Data for deforestation-free commodities
MRV for mitigation results
Forest data for tracking progress in ecosystem restoration

Members of the Pundbe Clan near the Baiyer National Forest Inventory worksite in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Importantly, the FAO and Papua New Guinea Forest Authority work closely with traditional landowners when collecting specimens and data in the field. Copyright image on the left: ©FAO/Thomas Nicolon. Copyright image on the right: ©FAO/Cory Wright

Earth Day 2024: A year of impact

In the first year of implementation, AIM4Forests has worked with Bolivia, Brazil, DRC, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Peru, PNG, Uganda, and Viet Nam to strengthen their forest monitoring. Through delivery of technical assistance, the programme has supported over 1200 individuals (40% women and more than 100 members of Indigenous Peoples and local communities) to strengthen their forest monitoring capacities.

For example, AIM4Forest is supporting partner countries engaged in reducing deforestation and works side-by-side with country teams on measurement and reporting of forest mitigation efforts. Such as with Ghana and Viet Nam to unlock climate finance by supporting the compilation of the first ART-TREES monitoring report, currently awaiting validation, for a remarkable amount of 21 million carbon credits, corresponding to 36 million tonnes of emission reductions.

Next to technical assistance directly targeting countries, FAO uses innovative learning approaches through e-learning, massive open online courses, and self-paced learning. In 2023, FAO has reached thousands of e-learners, offering the possibility to increase their knowledge and skillset at their own pace. Topics covered on the e-learning series are institutionalization of forest data, MRV for environmental integrity, National Forest Inventory, and the use of the SEPAL platform for forest and land monitoring, among others.

Through AIM4Forests, FAO also works on the methodological and technological foundations of forest monitoring. For example, through research on technological innovation driving transparent forest monitoring and reporting for climate action, forest degradation, good practices in sample-based area estimation, and on approaches to ensure the permanence of emission reductions under the Paris Agreement's Article 6. Such dedicated research results dovetail with work on open-source tools, platforms, and datasets, free to use for developing country governments. For instance, FAO launched a new Open Foris (Ground) solution to support deforestation-free commodity production, allowing its users to collect data on their mobile phone, to produce relevant forest monitoring information using geospatial analysis, and to visualize this data in a graphical, user-friendly manner.

However, forest monitoring involves more than just governments. Indigenous Peoples and local communities play a crucial role in protecting and restoring forests through their stewardship and traditional knowledge. AIM4Forests is committed to empowering Indigenous Peoples and local communities by involving them in forest monitoring and relevant decision-making processes affecting their territories and livelihoods. Under AIM4Forests, FAO has partnered with the International Land Coalition to implement an ambitious workplan that includes Indigenous Peoples-led communities of practice on forest monitoring. This initiative entails sustained technical and institutional support tailored to their specific needs including land and forest monitoring and mapping.

AIM4Forests In Numbers

In the first year, the programme surpassed expectations in supporting countries, with:

1268 individuals trained, 23 organizations involved, and 11 countries benefited, exceeding the targets of 100 people and 10 organizations initially set.
4677 English, Spanish and French speaking e-learners completing 5 courses and earning 439 digital badges, alongside the successful launch of a new e-learning curriculum.
4 publications addressing methodological challenges, such as permanence and forest degradation, 2 south-south exchanges involving 17 countries, and 3 new open-source solutions to support field data collection and deforestation-free commodity production (Ground, Whisp and Arena 2.0).
Country Technical Assistance and Country-Led Planning (CLP) initiatives, evidenced by successful submissions to TREES by 2 countries, 5 National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) assessments, 2 NFMS Roadmaps development, and 3 CLP pilot implementations.

Looking ahead: Towards robust NFMS and MRV systems

As AIM4Forests enters its second year of implementation, it will continue to work together with countries to advance their forest monitoring, including two new countries: Zambia and Colombia. Other highlights for the coming year include AIM4Forests' support to Guatemala and Papua New Guinea to report their forest mitigation efforts to the UNFCCC and bringing together Latin American countries for a regional exchange on nesting, to advance alignment of carbon accounting across scales.

Through continued collaboration, the programme aims to work towards better forest monitoring – and thereby help lay the foundation for addressing deforestation and accelerating restoration.

AIM4Forests: Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests