Lao People’s Democratic Republic Advances Forest Data Transparency with FAO Support
The Department of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) has taken a significant step towards enhancing forest data transparency by registering its national forest monitoring system (NFMS) data on the Food and Agriculture Microdata(FAM) Catalogue, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The FAM Catalogue provides access to comprehensive information on Lao PDR’s forest resources, including the National Forest Inventory (NFI), carbon stock assessments, and land cover change data. This initiative is a cornerstone of Lao PDR’s Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) strategy for climate change mitigation, supporting Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) processes for REDD+ and greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The data accessible through FAM has already been used for carbon accounting under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s Carbon Fund and for setting national forest reference levels for REDD+. Moving forward, Lao PDR aims to consistently apply these datasets to inform forest sector policies and decisions.
This milestone was achieved with support from the FAO project "Building Global Capacity to Increase Transparency in the Forest Sector (CBIT-Forest)", funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The project has played a pivotal role in fostering openness and capacity building in the forest sector globally, including in Lao PDR.
Lao PDR’s commitment to forest data transparency and climate action has also been highlighted in the recent publication "Pathways to Forest Data Transparency: Best Practices from National Forest Monitoring to Support Climate Action", launched during COP 29.
For more information, visit the FAO FAM Catalogue: FAO FAM Catalogue
This story was originally published here: Lao People’s Democratic Republic Advances Forest Data Transparency with FAO Support