EARTH SUMMIT+5 Special Session of the General Assembly to Review and Appraise the Implementation of Agenda 21 New York, 23-27 June 1997 PROGRAMME FACT SHEETS

	Forest Resources Assessment Programme
	Responsible Organization(s)	FAO, Forest Resources Division
	Description	Review of progress and identification of issues in the field of Assessment and continuous observation of forest resources.
	Issues addressed	A wide range of information is needed for the preparation and implementation of National Forest Programmes. National forest inventories constitute a basic tool and contribute to the formulation of effective national strategies for the forest sector. A sound database is an essential requirement to relate investment with return, production with consumption, conservation with development and to ensure that forest management achieved the goal of sustainability in a widest sense.
	Objectives	Produce a continuous information on world forest resources.
	Results achieved	In the context of FAO's forest resources assessment 1990 a "Survey of tropical forest cover and study of change processes" was issued as forestry paper 130. Two major findings were of high significance: the direction of land cover change has been described in detail by regional and by climatic zone the previously published forest cover state and change estimates of the 1990 assessment, which were based on country reports, are confirmed. For the second and the third sessions of the CSD Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Panel on Forests reports were drafted for substantial discussions under Programme Element (1(a): Assessment of the multiple benefits of all types of forests. These reports provide an overview of current status, recent developments and outlook for the future. For inclusion in the "State of the World's Forests" report 1997 an update of the forest resources assessment 1990 has been made to provide an interim description of the status in 1995 and changes since 1990 regarding core information on the world's forests. Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000) has been initiated. Major efforts are being made to respond to the demands for new information raised in international debate and formulated, among others, by the IPF. Several expert meetings have been held culminating with the expert consultation on global forest resources assessment 2000 in Kotka, Finland in June 1996 (Kotka III). At this occasion recommendations were made as to the information content of FRA 2000 and the methodological approaches to be used. A process of strategic and operational planning for the assessment 2000 is under way with the multiple aim to (i) produce a work plan to follow and (ii) specify work modules for donors to sponsor or for partners to contribute to.
	Lessons learned	Capacity building is a key of the components of forest resources assessment programmes. In response to the findings and recommendations of the UNCED Agenda 21 (Chapter 11, "Combating Deforestation"), the focus is on developing assessment and systematic observations in a context of long-term planning, evaluating effects, quantitatively and qualitatively, and rectifying inadequacies.
	Financing	Regular Budget and bilateral trust funds plus participating of UNEP, EFI, UN European Commission, WCMC, the NASA.
	Contact	Klaus Janz Forest Assessment and Management Group Forest Resources Division, FAO Tel.: (396) 522 53261 FAX: (396) 5225 6661