On the 7^th of July, join us for our technical webinar, “Forest data and free open-source solutions for Climate Action.”

Date: Wednesday, 07 July 2021

Time: 14:30 – 16:00 Rome time, CEST

Register in advance here

The webinar “Forest data and free open-source solutions for Climate Action” will highlight the ways in which national forest monitoring systems (NFMS) support climate action, share experiences from Ghana and Papua New Guinea, and launch ARENA, FAO’s newest, free, open-source tool created with the support of the UN-REDD Programme to advance NFMS and other forest monitoring efforts. These themes will not only inform practitioners and other experts but may help guide countries in the process of designing or implementing NFMS.

This webinar will be delivered by a number of forestry experts from FAO and partner countries. The speakers include Julian Fox, team leader of the National Forest Monitoring cluster in the Forestry Division at FAO; Rocio Condor-Golec, project leader for FAO’s “Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector (CBIT-Forest);” Lauri Vesa, a National Forest Inventory Expert at FAO; Thomas Yaw Gyambrah, manager for MRV and REDD+ Programmes at the Climate Change Directorate of the Forestry Commission- Ghana; Elizabeth Kaidong, Climate Change Officer with the REDD+ and Climate Change Branch under the Resource Planning and Development Directorate of the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority; Emily Donegan, NFI Programme Support Specialist at FAO; and Cristina Petracchi, Leader of the FAO elearning Academy.

A robust national forest monitoring system (NFMS) enables countries to align their forest policies with up-to-date, reliable, transparent and accessible information. NFMS knowledge and results support countries in their efforts to build confidence in climate actions and increase the effectiveness and transparency of those actions under the Paris Agreement. In this context, the ability to freely and easily access innovative and open-source tools and technologies becomes crucial for any country eager to efficiently formulate, implement and monitor forest-related policies and track progress towards sustainable forest management.

How to Attend:

• The webinar is free and open to everyone, provided you have the link to the platform.
• To join the webinar session on Zoom, kindly register beforehand.
• We suggest you use Google Chrome in order to join the webinar.
• We also recommend you check your time zone here
• Please note that webinars have a limit of 1,000 simultaneous participants. For every webinar we will proceed with providing access to the first 1,000 registered participants.

About the speakers

Julian Fox is team leader, National Forest Monitoring (NFM), Forestry Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As team leader of NFM, Julian coordinates global normative NFM work, global NFM tools (Open Foris and SEPAL), and a significant portfolio of country support activities of the NFM team (active in forty-five countries).
Julian Fox has 20 years of experience in forest monitoring as a manager of international and national projects, researcher, teacher, and technical specialist. He also has 7 years of experience living and working in developing countries managing projects in Papua New Guinea and Zambia. Julian holds a PhD in forest monitoring.

Rocío Cóndor-Golec is leading the "Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector (CBIT-Forest)” global project of the FAO financed by the CBIT trust fund of the GEF. She is coordinating activities to make forest data more transparent, accessible and available and helping developing countries meet the Paris Agreement's enhanced transparency framework (ETF), in collaboration with key international stakeholders. Rocío has 20 years of experience working at the national and the international level on measurement, reporting and verification under the UNFCCC and currently supporting the ETF implementation at the FAO.  Rocio holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Science and a PhD in Forest Ecology.

Lauri Vesa has over 30 years of experience working at the national and international level on forest monitoring, education, management planning and development of forestry information systems via various positions. He has worked in various projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific Region. Lauri has coordinated the development of the Open Foris tools at the NFM team between 2018 and 2020, and he acted as the technical adviser for Open Foris Arena. Lauri holds a Licentiate of Science and Master's degrees in forest management planning.  

Thomas Yaw Gyambrah is the Manager for MRV and REDD+ Programmes at the Climate Change Directorate of the Forestry Commission. He coordinates activities for the successful implementation of all REDD+ Programmes and Projects as well as the Measuring, Reporting and Verification of Emissions Reductions for the Projects. Thomas also coordinates efforts towards the full operationalization of Ghana’s National Forest Monitoring System. Currently, he ensures that Ghana develops a web portal as a one stop shop for forest monitoring. He has more than a decade experience in Natural Resources Management in Ghana and has assisted in landscape restoration initiatives over the period.

Elizabeth Kaidong is the acting Climate Change Officer with the REDD+ and Climate Change Branch under the Resource Planning and Development Directorate of the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority, with 10 years of experience in this role. Elizabeth has been working on climate change activities, mostly REDD+ elements such as NRS, NFMS, FRL and SIS, with close collaboration with the Climate Change Ministry of Papua New Guinea. She has a background in forestry and she was involved in the first Multi-purpose national forest inventory for the country.  Elizabeth Kaidong has also been involved in using the Open Foris tools since its inception in Papua New Guinea in updating the forest and land use information.

Emily Donegan joined FAO in 2013. Her work focuses on forest monitoring, REDD+ and climate change. She is currently working on the CBIT-Forest project to deliver knowledge and training materials such as the e-learning course “Forests and Transparency under the Paris Agreement”. Emily is interested in climate action, biodiversity, research and communicating science and promoting knowledge exchange. She holds a master’s in Environmental Sciences with a focus on soils and a bachelor’s in Plant Sciences. She is from Northern Ireland.

Cristina Petracchi heads the FAO elearning Academy. She manages and coordinates the design, development, delivery and language adaptations of an extensive portfolio of elearning courses and blended learning programmes for the benefit of FAO member countries and is responsible for the creation of University Masters' and Post Graduate Degree Programmes. She engages actively in consolidating partnerships across United Nations agencies, academic institutions and universities, regional organizations, CSOs and NGOs, for capacity development initiatives. In addition to a University Degree in Biological Sciences, Ms Petracchi holds a PhD in Nutrition and Food Science, and has several years of experience of capacity development activities in several countries.