Global forest resources assessments have been carried out by FAO since 1948, practically since FAO was formed. The mandate to carry out these assessments stems both from the basic statues of FAO (FAO 2003a), and by the Committee on Forestry (COFO) (e.g. FAO 2003b). Global assessment reports have been published at approximately ten year intervals. The latest of these reports, FRA 2000, was published in 2001 (FAO 2001).
The Global Forest Resources Assessment Update for 2005, or FRA 2005, is specially mandated by the COFO 2001 and COFO 2003 that recommended assessment at 5 year intervals to relate it to international forestry processes and implement it as a broad based assessment.
The main components of FRA 2005 are outlined below to give an overview of the entire project and to put the country reporting process in a context. The following milestones are important to the FRA 2005:
Milestone |
Date |
Comment |
Global meeting of National Correspondents |
Nov 2003 |
Training of National Correspondents and feedback on draft national reporting tables |
Deadline for country reports |
Dec 2004 |
During 2004 assistance and guidance to National Correspondents will be given through regional workshops |
COFO 2005 |
Mar 2005 |
Comprehensive progress report expected |
UNFF5 |
May 2005 |
Comprehensive input on reporting processes expected |
FRA 2005 launch |
Oct 2005 |
New global totals presented |
For more details regarding the Global Forest Resources Assessment, please follow the links below:
www.fao.org/forestry/fra Homepage for FRA
www.fao.org/forestry/kotka4 Kotka IV Expert consultation
www.fao.org/forestry/fra-ag FRA Advisory Group
www.fao.org/forestry/fra-nc FRA National Correspondents
www.fao.org/forestry/fra2005 FRA 2005 update
The Global Forest Resources Assessment relies on information provided by the individual countries. FAO establishes the framework for reporting and conduct training and gives guidance to the national correspondents in order to secure that the information provided comply with the requirements.
The FRA 2005 is requesting National Correspondents to submit their report as a FRA Working Paper1 format that contains the relevant information for their country. National Correspondents will be provided with a preformatted FRA Working Paper template to be used for the reporting.
The country report will be divided into two separate parts:
• Standard country reporting. This report should be completed by every country and follows a set of pre-defined national reporting tables. It is of utmost importance to closely follow the specifications and guidelines provided by FAO, as this will secure that underlying data are as consistent as possible and follow a standard set of definitions, making it possible to compile information at regional and global level.
• Country reporting by thematic areas. This is a short voluntary report of additional information considered important by the countries, structured into a grouping of common thematic areas according to ongoing Criteria & Indicators processes.
The figure below presents the three main phases of the country reporting process and planned target dates. The country reporting process starts with design phase. The objective of the design phase is to develop, test and evaluate the country reporting process. The design phase is followed by a reporting, compilation and analytical phase. The third and final phase is the validation and delivery of national assessment reports.
This document constitute the technical specification of the national reporting tables to be included in the standard country reporting for FRA 2005 and should be considered as an authoritative document in this respect. The document is distributed as part of the communication process between the FAO, UNECE secretariat and all National Correspondents. It can be used in meetings and training at all levels aiming to build national capacity for assessment and reporting in general, and to improve country reports to FRA 2005 in particular.
This document form part of a documentation package provided by FAO to the national correspondents: In total, the package consists of the following documents:
a. National Reporting Tables for FRA 2005 (FRA Working Paper 81)
b. Guidelines for Country Reporting (FRA Working Paper 82)
c. Template for Country Reports (Word document)
d. Template for National Reporting Tables (Excel file)
The FRA 2005 will provide information that is relevant for many other forest related international processes and agencies. For example, the reporting tables on biomass and carbon follow the reporting requirements established by IPCC. Similarly, the FRA 2005 reporting now includes several new issues related to international processes on biodiversity, criteria & indicators for sustainable forest management, etc. FRA participates actively in international efforts on harmonizing information requirements of various international processes that will contribute to reduce the reporting burden of countries.
As recommended by Kotka IV, and confirmed by COFO 2003, an Advisory Group (AG) has been established to support the FRA process. The AG consists of about twenty experts from all regions and partner organisations of the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment programme. The primary role of Advisory Group is to advise the FRA secretariat on scope, methods, procedures and timing of the global assessment. This document takes into consideration the deliberations at the meetings of the AG. For further information on the FRA AG, please visit www.fao.org/forestry/fra-ag
1 FRA Working Papers is a series of documents elaborated within the FRA programme at FAO. The present document is an example of a FRA Working Paper.
