Successful Workshop on Forest Products Statistics in Eastern Africa
FAO organized an Eastern Africa subregional workshop on forest products statistics in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, 2-4 December 2013. The workshop focused on improving and enhancing statistical capacity of national forest products statistics in the subregion. Timely and reliable statistics on forest products are critical for decision making in investment and policy formulation. Improving the quality and availability of data on forest products has become a key priority as Africa strives to realize their goal of economic development and sustainable forest management.
The workshop also provided a platform to bring national and international experts together to share their experiences and knowledge for better data about production, consumption and trade in forest products. About 20 experts from seven countries attended the workshop. Specifically, they were statistical officials on forest products statistics from national forestry institutions and national bureaus of statistics of Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. As a part of the interagency collaboration on forest products statistics between FAO and International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), an expert from ITTO presented their experiences in data collection, compilation and dissemination.
During the three-day workshop, participants had shared experiences and knowledge on national and international forest products statistics with peers in the subregion. They also had in-depth discussions on issues and constraints encountered and proposed effective solutions to improve data quality and availability in the future.
The workshop was successful in improving communication and strengthening cooperation between national forest products statistics providers and FAO. Furthermore, follow-up actions were proposed to improve the reliability and accuracy of forest products statistics in the subregion.
Links:
ITTO news release
FAO Subregional Office for Eastern Africa