The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is pleased to invite Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and relevant partners to contribute to the Global Survey on Indigenous Peoples’ Restoration and Monitoring.

Over 170 students, researchers, academics and professionals from 36 countries joined the FAO Technical Lecture Series session on “Open Foris: Democratizing open-source forest and land monitoring”, reflecting strong interest in how reliable data, digital technologies and open-source solutions can support evidence-based decision-making for forests, land use and climate action. The session attracted participants from across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, including strong engagement from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia, alongside representation from FAO’s Youth Forest Champions.

Des données forestières transparentes et accessibles sont essentielles pour une action climatique efficace. Alors que les pays s’efforcent de respecter leurs engagements dans le cadre de l’Accord de Paris, le besoin d’outils fiables, ouverts et conviviaux pour la collecte et l’analyse des données ne cesse de croître. 

Latin America and the Caribbean are home to more than 880 million hectares of forest, representing 21% of the world's forest cover and 47% of the region's land area. Of this total, 81% is located in the Amazon region, 10% in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, and 9% in the Southern Cone. According...

Le 9 juin 2026, le ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Environnement, en coordination avec les agences et unités concernées, a organisé une session de formation sur l'utilisation du logiciel Open Forest Ground pour faciliter la collecte de données sur les zones cultivées, en veillant au respect du règlement de l'Union européenne sur la production et le commerce de produits non issus de la déforestation (EUDR).

Dans la région amazonienne d'Iquitos, la métropole la plus peuplée de l'Amazonie péruvienne, se trouvent certaines des tourbières tropicales les plus étendues et les plus préservées de la planète. Ces écosystèmes sont complexes et peu entendus, connus localement comme les « chupaderas », qui cont...

 As part of the project “Forest Resilience of Armenia: Enhancing Adaptation and Rural Green Growth Through Mitigation,” implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a specialized training mission was conducted in Armenia from 10 to 15 May 2026.

On 19th March, for the International Day of Forests (21 March) and World Water Day (22 March), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) convened a high-level global event highlighting the interconnections between forests, water, economies and gend...

As countries navigate an increasingly complex landscape of climate related reporting requirements, the demand for accurate area estimates has never been greater. Whether for national communications under the UNFCCC, participation in carbon markets, or the emerging Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), governments need reliable, defensible, and transparent data that reveal the impact of their adaptation and mitigation actions. At the heart of these estimates lies a component that is both indispensable and resource intensive: human interpretation of satellite image timeseries for land use and land use change assessment. 

The quest to understand and manage the world’s forests began centuries before satellites. As early as the 16th century, European laws regulated logging, and by the 17th century, growing wood scarcity in Central Europe intensified concerns about sustainable supply. In the 1850s, foresters such as D. Brandis formalized these principles through systematic teak inventories in Burma, helping establish scientific forest management.  

Open Foris est une initiative gratuite et à code source ouvert de solutions de surveillance des forêts et des terres développée par la FAO. Ce portefeuille rend le suivi environnemental...

From Local Forest Monitoring to Digital Innovation in Agrifood Systems: Open Foris in Action

Fifteen years ago, a Finnish-funded development project began reshaping how the world monitors its forests. Today, that initiative has evolved into Open Foris, a global suite of open-source technical solutions developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), now used in over 190 countries.

Le Programme Européen pour un Cacao Durable (SCP), bras opérationnel de l’Initiative Européenne pour un Cacao Durable, mis en œuvre avec FAO, soutient le Cameroun pour renforcer la durabilité de la production de cacao.

More than 70 participants from research institutions, academia, and field projects joined the

“Just 10–15 years ago, forest data was collected in many countries using pen and paper,” recalled Andreas Vollrath, forestry expert at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). “The introduction of digital tools, such as the Open Foris platform, has enabled developing countries to transition to electronic data collection and advanced remote sensing analysis, which opened the door to the large-scale use of artificial intelligence in forestry.” 

Kosovo has taken an important step in advancing its forest monitoring by launching the third cycle (2024–2025) of the National Forest Inventory (NFI). Building on earlier inventories conducted in 2002 and 2012, this new cycle marks a major technological leap forward through the integration of Open Foris Arena and Arena Mobile – open-source digital platforms that streamline data collection, processing, and quality assurance. 

FAO has launched a new publication, A Global Methodology for the Assessment of Direct Drivers Associated with Deforestation and Degradation, presenting a harmonized, statistically robust approach to identify and validate the causes of forest loss. A launch webinar took place on 2 October 2025, bringing more than 80 participants from around the world interested in understanding the methodology and its implications for forest monitoring.

Mexico is reinforcing its forest monitoring capacities – a vital step for the nearly 12 million people, including 3.6 million Indigenous Peoples, who depend on forests for their livelihoods. 

In August 2024, FAO provided a dedicated training on Open Foris Arena, FAO’s open-source platform for field data collection and analysis and funded under the “AIM4Forests: Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests” programme funded by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Twenty-five specialists from the National Forestry Commission of Mexico (CONAFOR) learned how to design surveys, collect data with Arena Mobile, and integrate statistical analysis directly into their workflows.  

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is supporting the design of an ambitious new global facility for securing the future of tropical forests, discussed at a high-level event in New York this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).