1. National Forest Monitoring System
(NFMS) assessment tool
Rocio Condor
National Forest Monitoring Team
Forestry Division (FAO)
24 January 2022
“Strengthening Indonesian Forest and Land
Monitoring for Climate Actions”
2. FAO/GEF CBIT-Forest
A global project to step up developing countries’ ability to collect, analyze and
disseminate forest-related data, to make forest data transparent and accessible
in line with the ETF of the Paris Agreement.
To increase institutional and technical capacities and to boost knowledge-sharing
and awareness-raising about the ETF particularly in the forest sector.
26 countries targeted as well as 187 countries and territories
included FRA National Correspondents.
Impact
3. Upgraded FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) reporting and dissemination platform
(6 UN languages) and made forest data open and available in the Food and Agriculture Microdata
(FAM) Catalogue.
Tool developed to facilitate the assessment of gaps and needs in a country’s National Forest
Monitoring System (NFMS). A brief on legal aspects for NFMS’s and data sharing also available.
Outreach and communication (Trello Board) and sharing of case studies on forests and
transparency in the forest sector from LAC, Africa and Asia (compilation).
Knowledge sharing (global webinars 2020, 2021) and training material, including E-learning
course in 6 UN languages, National Forest Inventories training modules, and 3 editions of the
massive open online course held in English, Spanish and French.
Check 2-year in numbers: http://www.fao.org/3/cb8324en/cb8324en.pdf
How?
4. 1. Introducing the
NFMS assessment tool
• A user-friendly, excel-based tool
• Available in six languages
• Free and open to all interested stakeholders
• Available via the following sources:
o FAO e-learning course ‘Forests and transparency under the Paris
Agreement’, Lesson 2: The National Forest Monitoring System
o FAO NFM+ web page/Innovative tools
o FAO CBIT-Forest web page/ELearning
FAO. 2020. National forest monitoring
system assessment tool – Quick guidance.
Rome (English)
FAO. 2020. NFMS
assessment tool – Info
note. Rome. (English)
For policymakers
For practitioners
5. 2. Methodology
The tool is based on
• FAO´s Voluntary Guidelines on NFM
• REDDcompass of the Global Forest
Observations Initiative (GFOI)
• FAO’s experience on NFM in different
national contexts
8. By using a rating scale from 0 to 3
0
1
3
2
No action has been taken in the country regarding this guideline or it evinces
many weaknesses and needs in the attainment of outcomes. This deserves priority.
There is awareness in the country about the guidelines and actions are taken to
implement it, though technical support is required. Where value “2” appears is
calculated as the average of the respective guidelines.
There is enough capacity in the country to implement the guideline.
There are no gaps or needs whatsoever, so it is expected to meet the outcomes
accordingly.
9. 5. Who are the potential users?
• Staff of Government bodies responsible for forest monitoring
o FRA national correspondents
o UNFCCC focal points
o Forestry Officials
o Technical staff
o Policy makers
• University professors and students in forestry and
environmental sciences
• Researchers
• Representatives of the public and private sectors
10. 4. Where it has been applied so far…
• Pilot countries tested/used the tool
o
o
• FAO run first assessment and then online sessions organized to validate the assessment with the
participation of various representatives of key national departments with also different expertise.
o
o Laos
o Thailand
o Uganda
o Côte d'Ivoire
o Guatemala
o Honduras
• Work plans/action plans prepared and countries priority actions identified to
strengthen the NFMS.
o Costa Rica
o Ecuador
o Mexico
o Liberia
o Angola
o Bahamas Mexico
Videos countries sharing experience on the use of the tool
o Panama
o Nicaragua
Costa Rica
11. Integrating forest and landscape restoration into
national forest monitoring systems
New publication
http://www.fao.org/3/cb6021en/cb6021en.pdf
12. 6. The NFMS assessment tool was
developed by
Rocío Cóndor
David Morales
Carla Ramirez
Anatoli Poultouchidou
Xinia Soto
http://www.fao.org/3/ca9903fr/ca9903fr.pdf
All you need to know about the NFMS assessment tool and its resources is
available here:
https://www.fao.org/in-action/boosting-transparency-forest-
data/news/detail/en/c/1456805/