Better Data, Better Decisions: Towards Impactful Forest Monitoring

By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Decisions based on data and analysis are often deemed to produce a better outcome and providing decision-makers with information is seen as an important development strategy. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals reinforces the importance of science-policy linkages. In the forestry sector, efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) have created opportunities for forest monitoring capacity development over the past decade, which can support forest management and domestic policy-making in addition to international reporting. This paper explores country examples, and considers how forest monitoring can inform problem-solving, especially on public policy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Release date: Oct 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9789251331880

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

An intergovernmental organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has 194 Member Nations, two associate members and one member organization, the European Union. Its employees come from various cultural backgrounds and are experts in the multiple fields of activity FAO engages in. FAO’s staff capacity allows it to support improved governance inter alia, generate, develop and adapt existing tools and guidelines and provide targeted governance support as a resource to country and regional level FAO offices. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, FAO is present in over 130 countries.Founded in 1945, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO provides a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. The Organization publishes authoritative publications on agriculture, fisheries, forestry and nutrition.

Book preview

Required citation:

FAO. 2020. Better data, better decisions – Towards impactful forest monitoring. Forestry Working Paper No. 16. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb0437en

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO.

ISSN 2664-1062 [Print]

ISSN 2664-1070 [Online]

ISBN 978-92-5-133108-8

E-ISBN 978-92-5-133188-0 (EPUB)

© FAO, 2020

Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode).

Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons licence. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition.

Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user.

Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [e-mail]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: [e-mail].

Cover photo: Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest, near Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, Brazil. ©CIFOR/Neil Palmer

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and acronyms

Executive summary

1. Introduction

2. Where and when does forest monitoring inform problem-solving?

2.1 Viet Nam’s forest transition

2.2 Cameroon’s forest concessions regime

2.3 Brazil’s efforts to reduce deforestation

2.4 Mainstreaming deforestation concerns into corporate activities

2.5 What type of information for what purpose?

3. How can forest monitoring inform problem-solving and what enabling conditions are needed?

3.1 Problem recognition

3.2 Identification of solutions and target setting

3.3 Putting solutions into effect

3.4 Monitoring results

3.5 Current use of forest monitoring to inform policy-making

4. How can forest monitoring systems be structured to inform problem-solving?

4.1 Accessibility

4.2 Transparency, reliability and credibility

4.3 Relevance

4.4 Sustainability

4.5 Current suitability of forest monitoring to inform policy-making

5. Conclusions and recommendations

5.1 A pathway towards impactful forest monitoring

5.2 Recommendations for impactful forest monitoring

5.3 An FAO approach to forest monitoring capacity development

References

Figures

ES 1 Applied problem-solving cycle

ES 2 A framework for understanding forest monitoring systems for science-based problem-solving

1Viet Nam’s forest transition in the early 1990s

2Forest units under forest management plans in Cameroon, 2004–2015

3Reduction of deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon, 1988–2018

4Growth of supply-chain commitments identified in a broad review of corporate policies, 2012–2017

5Applied problem-solving cycle

6Ingredients of windows of opportunity for (policy) change – and the possible contribution of data and analysis

7Evidence on the importance of non-wood forest products for Turkey’srural livelihoods

8Forest management inventory, harvesting inventory and information for management oversight in Cameroon’s concessions regime

9Current use of forest monitoring information in policy-making, according to an assessment of 38 countries

10 A framework for understanding forest and land-use monitoring systems for science-based decision-making

11 Indonesia’s indicative moratorium map showing areas off limits for issuing new concessions in brown

12 Argentina’s three