FAO place the spotlight on forest monitoring
Environmental Expert | 16 July 2008
SPAIN: Earlier this year, countries and FAO reconfirmed their commitment to jointly prepare the next Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), a comprehensive data collection on the state of the world’s forests which is scheduled for release in 2010. As part of the FRA 2010, FAO, its member countries and partner organizations will undertake a global remote sensing survey of forests. The survey will substantially improve knowledge on land use change including deforestation, reforestation and natural expansion of forests. The assessment will cover the whole land surface of the Earth with about 9000 samples and is intended to strengthen the capacity of all countries to monitor their own forests.
“The need to improve national forest monitoring is overwhelming as the demand for information has never been greater. National policy processes are striving to address cross-cutting issues such as poverty alleviation and food security related to forests.” – Jan Heino, FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry
During last week’s G-8 Summit, world leaders “encouraged actions for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) including the development of an international forest monitoring network building on existing initiatives”.
The main global initiative will be the FRA 2010 survey with key outcomes:
- Baseline information at the global and regional level on trends in the rate of deforestation, afforestation and natural expansion of forests over the past 30 years;
- A global framework and commonly agreed methodology for monitoring forest change;
- An information gateway providing easy access to remote sensing imagery;
- Enhanced capacity in all countries for monitoring, assessing and reporting on forests and land use changes.
