Year of publication 2016

The FAO Forest and Water Programme, launched in March 2016, emerged with the vision that forests can contribute to solutions addressing water security by strategically managing them within the landscape for water resources. To increase our understanding of forest-water interactions and ensure that they are taken into account in policy and management decisions, the Forest and Water Programme developed the Forest & Landscape Water Ecosystem Services (FL-WES) Tool. The tool provides decision support for the monitoring of forest-water interactions based on different contexts and situations. Based on the current conditions of the interest area and the available knowledge and resources, the tool will guide users to the best methodologies to collect baseline information in order to understand forest-water interactions. If baseline information already exists, the user will be guided to build on what is already in place to better measure these indicators and take into account a wider range of issues that will be key for future management plans.