Scenes of flooding and storms can show us just how much weather and climate affects our lives. Climate change threatens our ability to ensure global food security, eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. To combat climate change and its impacts, the Paris Agreement represents a commitment by countries to limit the rise of the global average temperature. Signatories are required to provide reports on their emissions and implementation efforts for mitigation and adaptation.  The Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) was created to track and report on these individual country commitmentsin a fair and transparent way. Developing countries are now working to...

Forests provide nature-based solutions to some of the most significant challenges of our era, including climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, hunger and poverty. Many international commitments, including the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use and the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework have recognized the roles forests play in mending negative impacts of human activity on the environment and sustaining healthy development. Notable progress includes the increase in references to forests in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – countries’ high-level political commitments to implement low-carbon and climate-resilient actions under the Paris Agreement. However,...

In early May, the XV World Forestry Congress (WFC) was held in Seoul, marking an important opportunity for the international community to collectively assess the state of the world’s forest resources. Organized by the Korea Forest Service (KFS) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), diverse representatives from a variety of organizations and country governments participated in this global forum, hostingsub-theme sessions, side events, and high-level dialogues. These events presented opportunities and challenges to turning the tide of deforestation, launched new tools and mechanisms, and set global agendas for future action.   Dynamic solutions are required to address...

As climate change poses a growing threat to life around the world, the global community has increased mitigation and resiliency efforts through international commitments such as the Paris Agreement. A vital component of this treaty, the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) was developed to build confidence in countries’ individual climate actions. Now, with the requirements of the ETF coming due in 2024, countries are finding solutions for improved collection, analysis and dissemination of forest and emission data to create a strong basis for reporting.   The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is among the UN agencies supporting these efforts,...

The National Forest Institute (INAB) of Guatemala has made the metadata and microdata of its first National Forest Inventory openly available. Such an achievement was made possible by the support of the project, “Strengthening global capacity to increase transparency in the forestry sector (CBIT-Forest),” coordinated by FAO and financed by the Fund for the Global Environment (GEF). This action is a demonstration of Guatemala's commitment to improve the transparency of its information related to forests and trees outside of forests. A National Forest Inventory (NFI) provides a systematic collection of forest resource data and improves the knowledge of the state of...