FAO and Finland: new agreement in the management of African forest resources.

The new agreement supports a $ 7 million project aimed at improving the accuracy, accessibility and transparency of forest data.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Finland signed an agreement on January 10 aimed at strengthening the capacities of countries in terms of forest resources and data management, in particular Africa. the multi 7 million project will be jointly implemented by FAO teams responsible for assessing global forest resources and national forest monitoring over a period of four years , with an initial contribution of $ 2.3 million provided by Finland. Have

Through this new partnership, FAO and Finland will join forces to help countries produce and disseminate better information, and thus contribute to better decision-making at different levels. Have

FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo said: “This important collaboration with Finland will help build capacity for innovative and accurate forest monitoring. With a spotlight on the empowerment of women in Africa, this project will bring our expertise and tools to where they are needed most. "

“Finland has over 100 years of tradition and expertise in forest assessment and monitoring. We are very happy to team up with FAO and offer our Nordic know-how. This is a great opportunity to help halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, ”said Ville Skinnari, Finnish Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade.

Making forestry more sustainable and resilient

Forests are sources of energy, food, income and provide important services such as climate change mitigation, soil protection and water resources. Forest ecosystems are of vital importance for rural livelihoods, especially in developing countries. Have

Finland's new contribution will support broad and inclusive capacity building activities and equal access to training events, tools and materials. In particular, capacity building activities will focus on Africa, with an emphasis on the participation of women. It will also provide tools and techniques that will allow countries to collect and analyze up-to-date information on their forest resources and report to national and international processes and conventions in a transparent manner and on an annual basis. Have

The ultimate goal of the project is to support the objectives of the United Nations Strategic Plan for 2017-2030 forests and forest-related SDGs. More specifically, the project will help reduce deforestation and forest degradation by promoting and facilitating the sustainable management and use of forests, which will lead to greater economic, social and environmental benefits.

The project will support the Glasgow Leaders Statement on forests and land use announced at the UN COP26 Climate Conference last November, which Finland is a signatory. Endorsed by more than 140 countries representing over 90% of the world's forests, the Declaration commits its parties to work together to halt and reverse land loss and degradation by 2030. The Declaration was unveiled at the Leaders' Summit Global Forum on Action on Forests and Land Use and seen as a significant step forward in addressing tropical forest loss and climate change. Have

FAO's work in forestry

The Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) is the most comprehensive assessment and authoritative forests and forestry. The latest of these assessments (FRA 2020) contains detailed regional and global analyzes for 236 countries and territories to meet the needs of various stakeholders: private and public sectors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), media, academia, etc.

The FRA is based on official country statistics. However, in less developed countries, data is sometimes out of date and derived using inconsistent methodologies. The initiative national forest monitoring (NFM) FAO assists countries in producing quality updated information on forest resources in over 50 countries, one third in Africa. The objective is to develop modern, transparent, reliable and accessible national forest monitoring systems, through the provision of free and open source tools for the collection of up-to-date and reliable data on forest resources using the remote sensing and field inventories.

One of the most important instruments of the NFM is the Initiative Open Foris FAO, which was launched in 2009 with financial support from the Finnish government. It provides open source digital public goods, which are widely used for forest and land monitoring applications. Over the years, Open Foris has had more than 30,000 users in 180 countries and helps stakeholders get more detailed information about forests and natural resources more efficiently.