Institutionalizing FAO’s National Forest Inventory E-learning in West Africa: Scaling Knowledge for Climate Action through Academia

Introduction

The Université Nationale d’Agriculture (UNA), formerly Université d’Agriculture de Kétou, was established in 2013 in Benin to support agricultural development. Based in Porto-Novo with campuses in Idnigny, Kétou, Sakété, and Adjohoun, UNA trains professionals in various agricultural fields, including tropical forestry, focusing on innovation and integrating local knowledge.

The College of Tropical Forestry (École de Foresterie Tropicale, EForT) of UNA combines real-life experience, practical application and discipline to equip professionals and technicians with technical and scientific skills in the areas of sustainable forest and wildlife resource management, wood processing, and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) value chains. To achieve competitivity in regional and global forest education, EForT develops international cooperation with various organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In 2024, in the framework of the implementation of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded project “Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector: accelerating capacity-building, knowledge-sharing and awareness raising (CBIT-Forest)”, EForT pioneered a successful collaboration in West Africa to institutionalize forest-related e-learning courses from the FAO elearning Academy in its academic curriculum.

Context in institutionalizing FAO e-learning course

The College of Tropical Forestry (EForT) at UNA offers dynamic professional Bachelor's and Master's programs that emphasize practical skills and technical knowledge in forestry and natural resources management. These skills and knowledge include forest engineering,  biodiversity estimation, spatial analysis tools, wildlife and rangeland management, NTFPs value chain development, etc. However, despite the rich and diverse curricula, a critical gap was identified: the lack of a comprehensive module on National Forest Inventories (NFI) – covering all steps from planning and implementation to data collection, analysis, and reporting. Filling this gap would have required lengthy and resource-consuming administrative processes and could only occur during scheduled program review cycles, that is, every 3-5 years.

Institutionalization process

In May 2024, the FAO’s Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms team, in collaboration with the FAO elearning Academy, organized a series of online outreach sessions to raise awareness among academic institutions about the E-Learning curriculum: Forest monitoring for climate action. These sessions targeted African universities affiliated with the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), to introduce the e-learning curriculum and seek interest for up-taking the e-learning courses in Academia. After attending these sessions, the Dean of the Forestry college, Professor Adandé Belarmain Fandohan, assessed the e-learning curriculum and identified the National Forest Inventories (NFI) course as key to addressing the curriculum gap within EForT’s bachelor’s and master’s programs.

Recognizing the administrative challenges in revising EForT curricula, the Dean opted for identifying flexible slots within the existing curricula – seminars and conference sessions – that could easily accommodate additional content without requiring structural changes to curriculum. Leveraging these flexible slots, EForT integrated the FAO’s online National Forest Inventory course into one of these seminar slots, thereby making it a mandatory and graded modules for students.

All students are expected to take the course under supervised classroom conditions. Pre-paid internet devices are provided in the classroom, enabling all students to have free access to the course. In addition, designated lecturers of forest inventory from the college are made available in-person in the room to support students attending the course and directly address any potential questions or concerns from attendees. Students are required to complete all modules and earn FAO digital badges and certificates. The grades associated with these badges are recorded as official seminar grades and included on students’ final transcripts. The same attendance conditions are expected to be replicated yearly for all students enrolled in the programs.

Results and success factors

By September 2024, EForT successfully institutionalized the FAO’s National Forest Inventory (NFI) course which was delivered as online facilitated mode from September 21 to October 11, 2024, and now available as self-paced mode (National Forest Inventory – Learning Journey) via the FAO elearning Academy as of end of March 2025. This course is permanently integrated into the seminar slot of the EForT’s Master curriculum termed “National Forest Inventories Seminar” (Séminaire sur les Inventaires Forestiers Nationaux). A total of 15 second-year master's students of the 2024–2025 cohort completed the course and earned all required digital badges. These outcomes enabled students to validate their seminar module, with grades officially recorded in their academic transcripts. Additionally, a total of 11 lecturers at the college benefited from the course by gaining full access to the course materials and/or supporting students during in-class sessions. The institutionalization got effective due to several important factors that were considered:

• Clear identification of a gap in the existing curriculum and a strong willingness from the college to address it innovatively.
• Strategic use of flexible curriculum slots (seminar slots) to integrate the e-learning course without waiting for a full curriculum revision.
• Targeted awareness raising among RUFORUM network through FAO’s outreach sessions effectively communicated the value and usability of the e-learning resources.
• Leadership and proactive engagement of EForT administrators were key to the institutional adoption of the course.
• Barriers removal from accessing the online course through free internet provision in classroom gave equal chance to all students to take the course on their own computers or smartphones.
• The multilingual format of the NFI e-learning enabled students to take the course in the official language of their master's program (French).
• Official recognition of course completion badges as valid academic grades facilitated the institutionalization and student uptake.

Feedback from the Director and students

Sustainability, replicability and scalability

The institutionalized NFI course (National Forest Inventory – Learning Journey) remains accessible at any time on the FAO elearning Academy and it also belongs to the Course: E-learning curriculum: Forest monitoring for climate action | FAO elearning Academy. This allows future student cohorts to benefit from the same experience annually. Its integration into existing seminar slots of the curricula ensures its continued use without requiring additional financial or human resources to deliver the NFI courses. It makes the approach simple, scalable, and sustainable. This model is replicable for other institutions seeking to scale up forest-related capacity building without formal curriculum reforms or extra resources.

Furthermore, through targeted awareness raising within the RUFORUM network, the Dean of the forestry college of UNA was able to share its institutionalization approach and experience with his colleagues in strategic positions across forestry schools/faculties in Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Mali. This further step laid the groundwork for a broader uptake of the FAO e-learning courses in academia across West Africa.

Related resources

Course: E-learning curriculum: Forest monitoring for climate action | FAO elearning Academy

National forest inventory online facilitated course

Grounded in data – Informing climate action and reporting with national forest inventories

Contact details

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