1.1. Programme objectives
1.2. Programme implementation tasks
1.3. Workshop components
1.4 Workshop participation
The inception workshop for the EC-FAO Partnership Programme: Information and analysis for sustainable forest management: linking national and international efforts in South and Southeast Asia was held at the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in Bangkok, Thailand on 10-12 July 2000. The workshop was titled Forestry information processes and planning.
The event was organized by FAO with financial support from the EC through the EC-FAO Partnership Programme.
This report provides the proceedings of the workshop, including an overview of the Partnership Programme, the workshop objectives and conditions, conclusions and lessons learned from this exercise.
Overall Objective of the Programme: To promote sustainable management of trees and forests in the tropics of South and Southeast Asia founded on policies that integrate and balance relevant economic, environmental and social aspects of forestry.
The following countries have been identified as participants in the EC-FAO Partnership Programme activities:
Immediate Objectives: To strengthen national capacities to collect, compile and disseminate reliable and up-to-date information on forestry in South Asia and Southeast Asia, to analyse the forest sector and to make information available to policy decision makers.
The workshop was designed to address the following components of the Partnership Programme:
1. Review of existing situation regarding data collection and use. Examine the role of local institutions in collecting and providing data on non-wood forest products. Examine possible guidelines for collecting data on land-use changes and assessing wood production outside of forests.2. Build regional networks among national statistical correspondents to increase the exchange of data and information management methods.
3. Develop a framework to collect essential data, policy and institutional information that are not yet commonly available. Identify direct target beneficiaries in terms of countries and institutions and key individuals to be involved.
4. Conduct pilot studies to establish suitable arrangements to collect data that is essential for sustainable forest management (SFM), but not yet commonly available.
The Workshop focused on information systems and processes in the participating countries. A particular focus was identifying areas where the Partnership Programme could assist the process of strengthening national information systems by supporting the implementation of pilot studies.
The Workshop had four major components:
In preparation for the workshop, participants were asked to focus on two major items.
1. Each participant was asked to prepare a paper describing national forestry information systems and processes. To align with the scope of the Programme, the paper was to include information on forest inventories (national and sub-national), methodologies for compiling wood supply data and statistics, and any particular surveys or studies of plantation forests, trees outside forests, wood energy, and non-wood forest products.2. The second preparatory item was to identify subjects (within the scope of the Programme) of priority importance for pilot studies in participating countries.
All participating countries were invited to send representatives to the workshop, with a recommended preference that the National Focal Point attend. Twelve countries accepted the invitation to attend, with Pakistan unable to provide a representative. Pakistan did, however, provide a national report on information processes. Last minute difficulties prevented the attendance of representatives from the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Twelve representatives from ten countries attended the workshop (see Appendix 1).
Representatives from major regional forestry institutions and the European Commission were invited to attend the workshop. Representatives from the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the FAO-based Forestry Research Support Programme for Asia and the Pacific (FORSPA) and Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia (RWEDP), and FAO Regular Programme staff attended the workshop. A full list of participants is appended.
