Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Consultation
contributions:
27

Towards improved reporting on primary forests

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO) Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) provides essential information for understanding the extent of the world’s forest resources, their condition, management and uses.  Data collected through the FRA reporting process are used to report on progress towards globally agreed targets and inform policy and decisions by governments, civil society and the private sector. Therefore, concepts, definitions and methods developed for the FRA have broad influence beyond the process itself and must therefore be carefully developed to ensure they can be implemented consistently by as many actors as possible. This on-line consultation contributes to improvements of guidance and methods for reporting comparable global information for primary forest area and its changes. 

The FRA requests countries to report on the extent of their forests for several different types of forests. One of these types is “Primary forest” which is defined by FAO as “Naturally regenerated forest of native tree species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed” (Terms and Definitions, FRA 2020). 

While the definition of primary forest may be broadly accepted, consistently measuring the actual area of primary forest among countries has proven to be challenging.  Studies have shown considerable variation in how countries apply the definition in their own circumstances, which raises questions about the comparability of the data among countries and its applicability for informing policy and decisions.  In addition, other recent studies have suggested new methods to assess the area of primary forest that might be broadly applicable among many countries. Fostering discussion and debate around definition and operational methodology for the assessment of primary forest are key to promoting accurate and consistent global reporting to assess progress toward global objectives such as Aichi Biodiversity Target 5 forest-related goals and targets under the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, Sustainable Development Goal 15 and the goals of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030.

Therefore, the FAO has undertaken to bring together FRA National Correspondents and other experts through a series of workshops to improve the operational methods for data collection and reporting on the extent of primary forests. The goal of these workshops is to increase the consistency of data collection methods and enhance the comparability among countries of estimates of the extent of primary forests. The workshops will be conducted in the course of 2020-2021 in different regions based on ecological, geographical, language and forest management differences in primary forests. The first workshop, for the boreal biome, is scheduled for March 17-19, 2020 in Ottawa, Canada. 

In order to facilitate discussion at these workshops, a background paper is being prepared, summarizing how the extent of primary forest has been assessed to date, identifying emerging methods that might provide useful alternatives to existing methods, and providing options for workshop participants to discuss.

The paper presents:

  1. A review and assessment of definitions relating to primary forests;
  2. A review of how primary forest has been reported in FRAs to date;
  3. An evaluation of datasets and methods currently available for mapping primary forests and estimating their condition, area and trends; and
  4. Options for future defining, assessing and reporting on primary forests.

Through this e-consultation, FRA National Correspondents, Secretariats of the Rio Conventions, Civil Society and other stakeholders are kindly invited to comment the background paper draft. The received feedback will contribute to the preparation of the final version of the background paper, which will be presented during the regional primary forest workshops.

When providing your feedback, kindly reply to the following guiding questions:

  1. Is the FAO definition on primary forest (FAO, 2018) adequate to your national/regional/global assessment and reporting purposes? If not, what criteria would you like to add/remove from the FAO definition?
  2. Is the background paper missing any major issues? If yes, please specify.
  3. Which methodology and data, if any, do you use to assess primary forest area and its changes?
  4. Which methodological changes would be needed to improve reporting on primary forest area and its changes at national, regional and global levels, with particular emphasis on improving consistency among countries?
  5. How can FAO help countries improve their reporting on primary forest?

Topics

This activity is now closed. Please contact [email protected] for any further information.

* Click on the name to read all comments posted by the member and contact him/her directly
  • Read 27 contributions
  • Expand all

FAO Publications

Here is a selection of titles proposed by FAO Publications for Forum participants who would like to read more on forest reporting.

Seventy years of FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment (1948–2018). Historical overview and future prospects

Launched in conjunction with a new online platform for forest reporting, this publication retraces the history of the Global Forest Resources Assessment, from the first in 1948 to more recent reports, which adopt a more comprehensive approach to address all aspects of sustainable forest management.



FRA 2020 terms and definitions

This document contains a comprehensive list of terms and definitions as well as explanatory notes for FRA 2020 reporting variables. 

FRA 2020 guidelines and specifications

This document provide information about the country reporting process, including an introduction to the new FRA 2020 on-line reporting platform. 

Trees, forests and land use in drylands: The first global assessment. Full report

This publication provides a comprehensive overview of forest and tree resources as well as land use in the drylands of the world.

The State Of The World’s Forests 2018. Forest pathways to sustainable development

The 2018 edition of the State of the World's Forests provided new information on the interlinkages between forests and trees and the Sustainable Development Goals, shedding light on their significance for water quality, climate, biodiversity, future energy needs and designing sustainable cities.

Global Forest Resources assessment 2015. How are the world’s forests changing?

Building on comprehensive data covering 234 countries and territories, the last edition of this five-yearly report showed that over the previous 25 years the rate of net global deforestation had slowed by more than 50 percent.

Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015. Desk reference

This desk reference provides the data reported by countries for the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2015. Presented in easy-to-consult tabular form, it is a useful companion to the main report.

Forthcoming publications

Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 – Key findings

The key findings from the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 contains key messages about forest resources, supported by graphs and figures. This summary document will precede the launch of the full report later in the year.

(Launch: end of April 2020)

Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 – Main report

The main objective of Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 is to inform the public about the state of the forest resources at global, regional and national levels.

(Launch: Committee on Forestry 2020, 22−26 June 2018, FAO headquarters, Rome)

The State of the World's Forests 2020

This series covers the status of forests, policy and institutional developments, and other key issues concerning the forest sector. It shares current, reliable and relevant information to facilitate informed discussion and decision-making. This year’s edition will focus on biodiversity.

(Launch: Twenty-fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 18−23 May 2020, Montreal)

 

1. It looks great and it has a similarity to my nation of Ethiopia, but can we call weeds like Prosopis juliflora a forest that covers more than 0.5 ha of land, higher than 5 meters? A specific place like the Afar region of Ethiopia, ranges are covered with such a weed type tree. 

2. I think the background only miss clarification like the ground condition with pieces of literature, the other is the best 

4. For trend estimate quadrant estimation will be good for few years, then arranging an index can be advisable, at last having a conversion factor of environmental variability, disease and others might be advisable, at last, it will be easy to forecast applying simulation method will be good 

5. Capacitate human resources, organize funds and use Capi-based data collection methodology that can be tracked with satellite GPS and easily converted the data to the database system. 

Towards improved reporting on primary forests

 

1. Is the FAO definition on primary forest (FAO, 2018) adequate to your national/regional/global assessment and reporting purposes? If not, what criteria would you like to add/remove from the FAO definition?

We have to include (add) the following topics in the definition:

  • The age of the forest trees.
  • The trees don’t belong to invasive species in the forest area (invasive species destroy the native trees).
  • The forest trees must be native trees of the same geographical region.
  • Tropical, subtropical arid zone forest …. etc.  

 

2. Is the background paper missing any major issues? If yes, please specify.

Yes

In the section of Measuring primary forest (line 299), I prefer to classify the forest based on using hyperspectral satellite images (250 bands) and creating a spectral finger print for each and every species (trees, bushes …etc.) in the forest. This will be very helpful for local, regional and global level forest modeling prediction, monitoring, and change detection of the primary forest.     

 

3. Which methodology and data, if any, do you use to assess primary forest area and its changes?

  1. Delineate the forest by Aerial photography or satellite imagery.
  2. Classify the trees density and species using GIS & RS programs.
  3. Model, Protect and Monitor the forest area from any degradation.

 

4. Which methodological changes would be needed to improve reporting on primary forest area and its changes at national, regional and global levels, with particular emphasis on improving consistency among countries?

  1. Harmonize the low, rules, policies …etc. this will help in reporting for national and regional level.
  2. Harmonize the data set file formats between the countries, to facilitate the analysis of data for regional and global levels.
  3. On national level, we have to centralize this mission for one institute.    

 

 

5. How can FAO help countries improve their reporting on primary forest?

  1. including Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technique in the country reporting.
  2. Train the country staff on how to differentiate between primary forest and non-forest (botanic gardens, pasture area …etc.) using GIS & RS.
  3. Inviting the country staff for Workshops / regional and international conferences.      
  1. FAO definition of forest is fine. However, land management system of a country may not use that definition. In Bangladesh a forest is simply a forest land as declared and protected by the government /forestry department. In my opinion 0.5 ha seems too less to be considered as realistic. It might be considered as 1 ha.
  2. The background paper lacks readibility. It might be more reader-friendly. So that it can be used as an advocacy tool.
  3. Primary forest area is simply changed by deforestation, ie, when the forest area is encroached. Sometime forest area is encroached by government (government structute, army installations etc). Then no remedy.
  4.  No comment.
  5.  Also, no comment.

Thanks.

Climate change is very important issue which must be considered for mitigation and adaptation, but it is not necessary part for definition of primary forests, as mentioned in UNFCCC document.

Forest in arid and semi- arid regions are very important.

Low forest cover countries which mainly are located in dry area need to be considered in such program.

Primary forests' definition has to be based on ecological characteristics.

But definition provided by FAO and UNFCCC could be used partly of each.

5% cover and above 2m height tree.

Assessment should be based on policies that streamline activities in forest industry because some native forest resources are depleted by Human Activities such as increase in population. GPS based methodology should be employed to improve reporting, deploying forest rangers mainly in developing countries who can monitor changes in forest dynamics