While Tunisia’s forest cover is relatively low (approx. 6.6 per cent), this remaining forest is critically important to the Mediterranean ecosystem and plays an important role in climate mitigation.  As in many countries, Tunisia’s state forest boundaries are unclear, and encroachment has become a major challenge.  Over time, boundaries preserved on maps dating from the time of the French protectorate (i.e. 1881 - 1956) have diverged from the reality on the ground where population and demand for agricultural land have increased.  Native Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) forests are gradually being replaced with olive groves, wheat fields, and settlements. A comprehensive...

The Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG), with technical and financial support from FAO, will host the Pacific Regional Workshop on Forest Monitoring from 5 to 9 December 2017 at the newly opened PNG National Forest Inventory Office in the PNG Forest Authority headquarters, Port Moresby. Experts from PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Indonesia and the Pacific Community (SPC) will share achievements and challenges of forest monitoring. The workshop will also introduce and provide hands on training on FAO forest monitoring tools including Open Foris and SEPAL.  The workshop is financially supported by the European Union, Global Environment Facility and the...

What kind of ‘triggers of change’ are needed to further accelerate concrete actions on the ground, at institutional level, and on a global level to scale up REDD+ implementation? The issue was addressed by Eva Müller, Director of Forestry Policy and Resources, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in her opening remarks at the joint UN-REDD/World Bank Group side event “Scaling up implementation for accessing REDD+ payments” held on 13 November 2017 on the occasion of UNFCCC COP23, Bonn, Germany. The event explored how REDD+ and other forest-focused land-use initiatives can and are boosting implementation towards accessing results-based...

More than half of Panama is covered with forests, while more than one-third of these forests are in indigenous territories. According to the country’s NDCs submitted to the UNFCCC under the Paris Agreement, Panama aims to increase the absorption capacity of the forest sector by over 10 percent, with the possibility of increasing this up to 80 percent with adequate international financial support. This initiative aims to encourage landowners to maintain forest cover of their lands and promote the creation of incentive schemes for the sustainable management of forest resources, reforestation, and restoration of degraded forest lands. The involvement and...

A technical course in REDD+ measurement reporting and verification (MRV) for 30 Indonesian government officials took place at University of Melbourne’s Creswick Campus from 4 to 15 September 2017. The training strengthened the capacity in a range of Indonesian government ministries and departments that play a role in MRV processes and REDD+ UNFCCC submissions. The curriculum for this training was built on a successful pilot masters’ level course on MRV which was carried out in late November and early December 2016 for Pacific Island countries. Read more at the University of Melbourne website.