A robust national forest monitoring system (NFMS) enables countries to align their forest policies with up-to-date, reliable, transparent and accessible information. NFMS knowledge and results support countries in their efforts to build confidence in climate actions, and increase the effectiveness and transparency of those actions under the Paris Agreement. In this context, the ability to freely and easily access innovative and open-source tools and technologies becomes crucial for any country eager to efficiently formulate, implement and monitor forest-related policies and track progress towards sustainable forest management. The FAO elearning Academy webinar “Forest data and free open-source solutions for Climate Action” will highlight the ways in which forest monitoring tools support climate action, share experience from countries and present a new open-source solution for collecting and analysing forest data.
This international technical webinar is part of the series organized by the FAO elearning Academy, Agreenium (l’alliance de la formation et la recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation, l’environnement et la santé globale), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) and Future Food Institute (FFI). These webinars are an opportunity for all of us to share experiences and lessons learnt, discuss challenges, and propose innovative solutions and models. They aim to provide a holistic and comprehensive view of current trends in thematic areas related to global challenges, by combining development, research, and innovation perspectives.
The main objective of these technical webinars is to give practitioners the opportunity to interact with international experts, United Nations officers, University professors, researchers and fellow participants, throughout the world. Webinars can be attended as interactive online sessions on Zoom, where sharing perspectives and asking questions to experts is encouraged. These sessions are also recorded and therefore available at any time, through the FAO elearning Academy: elearning.fao.org.
OBJECTIVES OF THIS SESSION
• Highlight the role of national forest monitoring systems (NFMS) in supporting climate action;
• Share knowledge and experiences from Ghana and Papua New Guinea;
• Launch FAO’s latest, free open-source tool, created to support forest monitoring.
Cristina Petracchi heads the FAO elearning Academy. She manages and coordinates the design, development, delivery and language adaptations of an extensive portfolio e-learning courses and blended learning programmes for the benefit of FAO member countries, and is responsable for the creation of University Masters’ and Post Graduate Degree Programmes. She engages actively in consolidating partnerships across United Nations agencies, academic institutions and universities, regional organizations, CSOs and NGOs, for capacity development initiatives. In addition to a University Degree in Biological Sciences, Ms Petracchi holds a PhD in Nutrition and Food Science, and has several years of experience of capacity development activities, in a number of countries.
Julian Fox is team leader, National Forest Monitoring (NFM), Forestry Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As team leader of NFM, Julian coordinates global normative NFM work, global NFM tools (Open Foris and SEPAL), and a significant portfolio of country support activities of the NFM team (active in forty-five countries). Julian Fox has 20 years of experience in forest monitoring as a manager of international and national projects, researcher, teacher, and technical specialist. He also has 7 years of experience living and working in developing countries managing projects in Papua New Guinea and Zambia. Julian holds a PhD in forest monitoring.
Rocío Cóndor-Golec is leading the “Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector (CBIT-Forest)” global project of the FAO financed by the CBIT trust fund of the GEF. She is coordinating activities to make forest data more transparent, accessible and available and helping developing countries meet the Paris Agreement’s enhanced transparency framework (ETF), in collaboration with key international stakeholders. Rocío has 20 years of experience working at the national and the international level on measurement, reporting and verification under the UNFCCC and currently supporting the ETF implementation at the FAO. Rocio holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Science and a PhD in Forest Ecology.
Lauri Vesa has over 30 years of experience working at the national and international level on forest monitoring, education, management planning and development of forestry information systems via various positions. He has worked in various projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific Region. Lauri has coordinated the development of the Open Foris tools at the NFM team between 2018 and 2020, and he acted as the technical adviser for Open Foris Arena. Lauri holds a Licentiate of Science and Master’s degrees in forest management planning.
Thomas Yaw Gyambrah is the Manager for MRV and REDD+ Programmes at the Climate Change Directorate of the Forestry Commission. He coordinates activities for the successful implementation of all REDD+ Programmes and Projects as well as the Measuring, Reporting and Verification of Emissions Reductions for the Projects. Thomas also coordinates efforts towards the full operationalization of Ghana’s National Forest Monitoring System. Currently, he ensures that Ghana develops a web portal as a one stop shop for forest monitoring. He has more than a decade experience in Natural Resources Management in Ghana and has assisted in landscape restoration initiatives over the period.
Elizabeth Kaidong is the acting Climate Change Officer with the REDD+ and Climate Change Branch under the Resource Planning and Development Directorate of the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority, with 10 years of experience in this role. Elizabeth has been working on climate change activities, mostly REDD+ elements such as NRS, NFMS, FRL and SIS, with close collaboration with the Climate Change Ministry of Papua New Guinea. She has a background in forestry and she was involved in the first Multi-purpose national forest inventory for the country. Elizabeth Kaidong has also been involved in using the Open Foris tools since its inception in Papua New Guinea in updating the forest and land use information.
Emily Donegan joined FAO in 2013. Her work focuses on forest monitoring, REDD+ and climate change. She is currently working on the CBIT-Forest project to deliver knowledge and training materials such as the e-learning course “Forests and Transparency under the Paris Agreement”. Emily is interested in climate action, biodiversity, research and communicating science and promoting knowledge exchange. She holds a master’s in Environmental Sciences with a focus on soils and a bachelor’s in Plant Sciences. She is from Northern Ireland.