The Forest and Water Programme develops, supports, and implements integrated forest-water activities, in order to meet the demands of countries and stakeholders and to ensure sustainable forest and water resources in the future. Through these activities the Programme provides technical advice for forest and watershed-related projects; conducts training to technical officers and other stakeholders; shares resources, lessons learned and tools that can assist stakeholders; and advocates for integrated forest-water policies and practices at local, national and international levels.
Capacity Building
This area of work aims to improve the understanding of forest-water relationships within local contexts and at different scales, as well as the ability to design, implement and learn from landscape approaches that both rely on these forest-water relationships, and have an impact on them.
In this context, FAO developed a module-based capacity development workshop guide for forest, water and land managers and project and community stakeholders involved in forest, water and natural resource management in 2019. This was complemented by FAO's introductory e-learning course on the forest and water nexus, released in 2021. Both resources seek to develop our knowledge to better manage forests and trees for their multiple benefits, including water quantity, quality and the associated socio-economic benefits on which people within and outside forests so heavily depend.
Technical Assistance
This area of work seeks to provide expert knowledge and technical support to FAO member countries working to strengthen the management of their forests and trees for water and other ecosystem services. By doing so, it aims to enhance capacity, increase in-country knowledge, and ultimately respond to the needs of member countries.
A recent example is FAO’s ongoing work in Zambia. With support from the UN-REDD Programme, FAO is bringing together Zambian and international partners, civil society, local communities, and academia. Focusing on five key districts, the partners combine local knowledge, national monitoring data, remote sensing data and state-of-the-art models into a comprehensive assessment of Zambezi’s forest-water-climate nexus. This assessment also works to identify new and diverse sources of finance for local climate action.
Knowledge Management
With the objective of better managing forests and trees for the provision of water-related services, this area of work focuses on knowledge management and aims to develop science-based products that are flexible and address the needs of a wide audience. In addition, this includes knowledge and information sharing and organization that captures the latest science on the forest-water nexus and brings together experts from the forest and water fields among others.
One example of this work is the development of knowledge products. For example, in 2021, FAO, USDA and IUFRO published ‘A Guide to Forest-Water Management’, which aims to improve the global information base on the protective functions of forests for soil and water. The guide reviews emerging techniques and methodologies, provides guidance on managing forests for their water services, and offers insights into the business cases for managing forests for water.
Advocacy
The advocacy area of work seeks to strengthen strategic communication, mobilize support, and disseminate information. This also involves amplifying key messages about the forest-water nexus to drive impactful changes at local, national, and global levels.
At the UNFCCC COP28, for example, FAO co-hosted a session with the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, Australian Water Partnership, and Stockholm International Water Institute at the Resilience Hub under the theme 'Water and Natural Ecosystems'. The session focused on best-practices, tools, and local initiatives that strengthen climate action and water resilience across landscapes, followed by a discussion on how they can be upscaled and systematically incorporated into global and national processes.