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On 23 March 2022, join the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for the International Webinar, “Learning from experiences to increase forest data transparency for climate action.”

Date: 23 March 2022 

Time: 14:30-16:00 (Rome time) Register in advance here   

Objectives:  

• Inform about the results from the CBIT-Forest project;
• Share knowledge and experience from pilot countries participating in the CBIT-Forest project: Côte d'Ivoire, Guatemala, Thailand and Uganda;
• Launch of the publication ‘Towards open and transparent forest data for climate action: Experiences and lessons learnt’.

About this webinar: 

This international technical webinar is part of the series organized by the FAO elearning Academy, Agreenium (French training and research alliance for agriculture, food, environment and global health), UN-ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), and Future Food Institute. These webinars are an opportunity for all of us to share experiences and lessons learnt, discuss challenges, and propose innovative solutions and models. They aim to provide a holistic and comprehensive view of current trends in thematic areas related to global challenges, by combining development research and innovation perspectives.

The main objective of these technical webinars is to give practitioners the opportunity to interact with international experts, United Nations officers, University professors, researchers and fellow participants, throughout the world. Webinars can be attended as interactive online sessions on Zoom, where sharing perspectives and asking questions to experts is encouraged. These sessions are also recorded and therefore available at any time, through the FAO elearning Academy: elearning.fao.org

Agenda and Speakers:  

• Moderator: Marieke Sandker, Forestry Officer, FAO
• Welcoming remarks: Cristina Petracchi, Capacity Development Officer, elearning Academy, FAO
• Opening remarks: Julian Fox, National Forest Monitoring Team Leader, FAO
• Publication Launch: Rocío Cóndor, Forestry Officer and CBIT-Forest Coordinator, FAO
• Round table: Learning from country experiences to increase open and transparent data (Cote d’Ivoire, Guatemala, Thailand and Uganda), Global Eenvronment Facility Secretariat, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat
• Q&A session
• Closing Remarks: Anssi Pekkarinen, Forest Resource Assement Team Leader, FAO

Speaker Biographies:

- Julian Fox is the Team Leader of the National Forest Monitoring (NFM) team sitting under the Forestry Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As team leader of NFM, Julian coordinates NFM’s global normative work, the development and implementation of NFM tools (namely Open Foris and SEPAL), and a significant portfolio of country support activities carried out by 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 CBIT-Forest project. 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 supports the ETF implementation within FAO.  Rocío holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science and a PhD in Forest Ecology.

- 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. She is also responsible for the creation of University Master’s 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. 

- Anssi Pekkarinen is a Senior Forestry Officer at FAO and coordinator of the Global Forest Resources Assessment programme. Pekkarinen studied in the University of Helsinki, Finland and holds a D.Sc. in Forest mensuration and management. He is specialized in forest inventory, remote sensing and geographic information systems. Before joining FAO in 2009, Pekkarinen worked as a research scientist at the Finnish Forest Research Institute (1996-2005) and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (2005-2008). Pekkarinen has more than 25 years of experience in analyzing forest resource information with remote sensing and field inventory data and he is one of the founding members of FAO’s Open Foris Initiative. 

- Jenny Wong is a Programme Officer in the Reporting and Review subdivision of the Transparency Division at the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. She works on issues relating to land use, land-use change and forestry and climate change, in particular, REDD+ measuring, reporting and verification by developing countries, and she is a Member of the FRA Advisory Group. Before joining the secretariat in 2004, Jenny has been serving the Malaysian government in various capacities, including at the Maritime Research Institute, focusing on marine protected areas and at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia, where she started working on forest and climate change policy matters. She obtained a Ph.D in Forest Resources from Oregon State University. 

- Namrata Patodia Rastogi supports the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF’s) portfolio for the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT). She provides technical advice related to CBIT; and supports operational and technical aspects related to the CBIT portfolio, working with GEF Agencies to ensure delivery of impactful projects within CBIT. She has more than ten years of experience working on climate change issues internationally, managing climate-related projects in Asia and Africa. She holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University. 

- Marieke Sandker is coordinating FAO’s country support on REDD+ reporting both to the UNFCCC (Forest Reference Levels, REDD+ results and GHG inventories) and for accessing jurisdictional REDD+ Results Based Payments (RBPs). She advises and supports countries with the establishment of National Forest Monitoring Systems and on MRV requirements for different RBP opportunities. Marieke has 20 years of experience in capacity development in the forestry sector in Africa, Latin America and Asia, working for several international organizations (FAO, CIFOR/IUCN, ONF). She holds an MSc degree in Environmental Science from Wageningen University and Research Center and a PhD in Forest Ecology from the Autonomous University of Madrid