The climate crisis demands global action. One of the most recognizable initiatives implemented at this scale is the Paris Agreement, signed by 195 countries, which aims to limit global average temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have outlined individual climate goals, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). To ensure each country is contributing to the Paris Agreement, the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) was developed, which improves transparency and builds trust in the process. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has implemented the two-year project, “Building global capacity to increase transparency...

Forests have significant climate change mitigation potential. Improving the transparency of forest-related data and information is needed now more than ever, particularly with respect to the enhanced transparency framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement. But what steps are being taken at the community, country and global levels?   The CBIT-Forest global project, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is supporting developing countries to collect, analyze and disseminate forest-related data to improve data transparency and accessibility in line with the ETF. The CBIT-Forest activities aim to boost institutional capacity and increase technical capacity in partner countries, as well as encourage global knowledge sharing.   A closer look at NFMS assessments  Under this project, FAO has developed the National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) assessment tool for identifying needs and gaps to help establish or strengthen a country’s forest monitoring system (information note English, French and Spanish). The tool presents good...

Producing sound data on forests and land-use has become easier with the launch of a new phase of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) state-of-the-art forest and land monitoring platform SEPAL. The second phase of SEPAL - System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring – can directly support FAO member countries in their efforts to generate transparent, accurate and consistent geospatial data, which is critical for reducing deforestation and degradation, and accelerating restoration. It will also help to ward off the worst impacts of climate change, protect against biodiversity loss, and safeguard the...

This week, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) publicly released a wealth of learning materials about forest monitoring under the Paris Agreement. By meeting the needs of many professionals to learn at their own pace, this initiative will increase awareness about the key role played by forests to achieve international climate goals.    Forests act as carbon sinks, by removing greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere, and thus they play an important role in meeting climate change mitigation goals. The Paris Agreement aims to limit global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The...

On 17 November 2021, join the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for the international, technical webinar, “Mind the gap: addressing National Forest Inventory capacity needs to support climate action.”   Date: 17 November 2021  Time: 14:30 (Rome) Register in advance here        Objectives:   Highlight the importance of national forest monitoring systems (NFMS) and National Forest Inventories to support climate action.   Share knowledge, experience and capacity needs for the implementation of forest monitoring from Guatemala and Liberia.    Launch of FAO’s national forest inventory (NFI) online training modules to facilitate NFIs design and implementation and support forest data analysis for policy and decision-making.  Agenda and Speakers:   Welcoming remarks: Fabio Picinich, FAO eLearning Academy; Emily Donegan, moderator (FAO)   Introductory...