The Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, at its 11th Regular Session in 2007, emphasized the urgency to conserve and sustainably use forest genetic resources and approved the inclusion of The State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resource in its Multi-Year Programme of Work. It also recommended that the FAO Committee on Forestry and the Regional Forestry Commissions be fully involved in the preparation of the report.

In 2008, the Regional Forestry Commissions and the Ninth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity were informed on the preparation of the report. At its 15th Session, the FAO Panel of Experts on Forest Gene Resources also discussed the preparation of the report and proposed an outline and a tentative list of thematic studies. In 2009, the 19th Session of the Committee on Forestry supported the preparation of the report and urged countries to collaborate with FAO and its partners in developing the report.

The Commission, at its 12th Regular Session in 2009, requested FAO to prepare the report for consideration at its 14th Regular Session. It stressed that the preparation of the first global assessment on forest genetic resources should be based primarily on country reports supported by thematic studies and inputs from relevant international organizations and other stakeholders. The Commission also endorsed the proposed outline of the report and agreed on the timeline for its preparation.as well as draft reporting guidelines.
 
In April 2010, FAO invited countries to nominate National Focal Points on forest genetic resources to coordinate the preparation of the country reports and to submit the reports by 1 January 2012. FAO also finalized the reporting guidelines and made them available (in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish) to the National Focal Points.
 
During 2010-2011, FAO organized six regional training workshops for the National Focal Points to support the preparation of the country reports. The training workshops were organized in collaboration with several international organizations and regional networks on forest genetic resources. Furthermore, FAO and its partners organized eight regional consultation workshops in 2012 to identify needs and priorities for enhancing the management of forest genetic resources.

At its Second Session in 2013, the Intergovernmental Technical Working on Forest Genetic Resources considered the key findings of the assessment process and reviewed draft strategic priorities for action for the conservation, sustainable use and development of forest genetic resources. FAO then presented a draft report to the Commission at its 14th Regular Session, also held in 2013. The Commission took note of the draft report and requested FAO to finalize it taking into account the comments provided. The Commission also reviewed and revised the draft priorities for action and agreed on them as the Global Plan of Action.

FAO published the first-ever State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources in 2014. The Committee on Forestry welcomed the report and the Global Plan of Action at its 22nd Session in 2014. At the end of the same year, the key findings of seven thematic studies were also published in a special issue of Forest Ecology and Management (open access).