FAO supports workshop to review the National Forest Inventory strategy in Brazil

On October 31 and November 1, 2024, the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB), with support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), held a workshop focused on the review of the National Forest Inventory (NFI) of Brazil.

The NFI, implemented in Brazil since 2007, aims to generate information on both natural and planted forest resources across the country. With 57.7% of Brazilian territory already inventoried and field data collected in 19 federal units, the project is fundamental for the formulation and implementation of public policies related to sustainable development and forest conservation.

However, the NFI implementation strategy, created more than 10 years ago, needed an update. With the support of international organizations, the SFB is working to review the governance of the inventory and the technical aspects of data collection. This workshop is part of that effort, bringing together contributions from representatives of various ministries, universities, research institutions, and state officials.

“New technologies, new challenges, new needs of an informed society: this is what we are discussing here to determine if what we have been doing is still relevant. This strategy will be the foundation for the next cycle, when we will return to the same areas to make new measurements of  trees,” explains André Dias, FAO consultant for the project.

FAO Representative in Brazil, Jorge Meza, who participated in opening of the workshop, noted that the revision of the NFI can support anti-hunger policies, as the biodiversity of agroforestry systems enables healthier diets. “The National Forest Inventory can provide useful information in the effort to measure forests’ contribution to food and nutritional security,” he highlighted.

Meza also emphasized the importance of regional considerations in the NFI: “The increasing scarcity of resources worldwide forces us to redefine the design of the forest inventory. We need to think of an almost permanent inventory, with measurements at the national level, but as a tool that communicates with municipalities and states, so that when they have information, they absorb it.”

Beyond technical and financial challenges and the need for more innovative methods, the update seeks to make the NFI widely recognized and relevant in national policy. “We need the inventory to generate a substantial dataset for political decision-making in the country. It must be recognized as an input for that purpose. Once we reach that level, we will ensure that the NFI becomes a national asset,” stressed Marcus Vinícius Alves, Director of Rural Environmental Regularization of the Brazilian Forest Service.

Along the same lines, Cristina Costa, Technical Coordinator of IICA in Brazil, highlighted the potential of the NFI. “The Brazilian Forest Inventory is a legacy that places Brazil at the forefront of environmental preservation and sustainable development. Hopefully, we will overcome the challenges with innovation, engagement, and the determination needed to make the NFI a means of forest governance and an international benchmark,” she praised.

The initiative to update the strategy of the National Forest Inventory of Brazil is part of the AIM4Forests programme, a partnership between FAO and the United Kingdom to improve forest monitoring globally.

AIM4Forests

To tackle global forest loss, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland launched AIM4Forests, a programme that aims to support forest monitoring based on modern technologies and technological innovation, as well as the use of remote sensing data across various countries.

The main objectives of AIM4Forests include addressing existing technical and institutional gaps, mainstreaming national forest monitoring systems into national institutions, accelerating the alignment, innovation, and the use of high-integrity datasets to overcome MRV methodological challenges, and promoting the participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in forest monitoring.