Big Data for forest biodiversity
The biological diversity of the world’s forests is becoming increasingly relevant as countries meet reporting obligations of national institutions and international conventions. While contributing to accelerating extinction rates, forest loss also adds up to the uncertainties associated with climate change. FAO Forestry and through the UN-REDD Programme, FAO supports countries to monitor their forest resources as these are the most important repositories of terrestrial biological diversity. In the present era of Big Data, cooperation among countries, agencies and institutions is crucial for sustaining global forest biodiversity.
Working not only with governments, but also with the academic community, FAO actively contributes towards the advancement of global efforts in biodiversity monitoring at all scales from biomes to species. Within this context, two FAO representatives attended the Inaugural Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative Conference & GFBI-FECS Joint Symposium 2017 held in Beijing last September. At this event, over 70 participants from 33 countries shared methods and proposals aimed at capitalizing on available information related to forest plots across the globe with the objective of generating ideas on data sharing and producing reliable global biodiversity-related products.