Dear members of the FAO forum,
I’d like to start with a special thank you to all those who have contributed to the forum so far and it is great to see the growing amount of participation. This week there have been many important and thought-provoking points raised. Several commentators have discussed the need for clear thresholds around how much disturbance or the interval of time since disturbance, results in forests not being considered primary. On this topic respondents have raised points, such as the need to consider all human disturbances and at what point does old/ancient damage stop being and important consideration when defining primary forest.
Another issue commonly discussed was the monitoring periods of remotely sensed datasets. In particular the limited timeframes of satellite data for some countries, as this influences the feasibility of these techniques for long-term monitoring of primary forest in these regions.
Although these have been some of the most common discussed topics, the wealth of feedback received was much broader and more detailed. Many thanks to all commentators for their time and effort put into this consultation so far. Over the last five days of the consultation period we welcome and greatly appreciate any further comments and feedback.
Thank you and kind regards
Patrick Norman
Mr. Patrick Norman