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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.