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National reporting

Monitoring, assessment and reporting (MAR) on sustainable forest management (SFM) has been a key area of work for the Forum, since its establishment. The Forum has regularly called upon Member States to develop adequate monitoring systems and also called on international entities, especially member organizations of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) to share data and streamline reporting on forests. The Forum has also been a long-time supporter and promoter of criteria and indicators for SFM C&I for SFM. The C&I constitute a useful tool to generate information on forests at the national level and to report on the state of forests to international bodies, including the Forum. Although there has been progress in data collection and reporting on forests, most developing countries have encountered challenges in assessing progress toward SFM, particularly the socio-economic aspects of forests.

National Reports submitted to UNFF

At UNFF11 in 2015, the Forum adopted its resolution on the International Arrangement on Forests beyond 2015. The Forum plays an active role in contributing to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), and to the implementation, follow-up and review of the forest-related aspects of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At UNFF12 in 2017, the Forum integrated the forest-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets in the UN Forest Instrument. The Forest Instrument鈥檚 objectives are to: strengthen political commitment and action at all levels to implement effectively sustainable management of all types of forests and to achieve the shared global objectives on forests; enhance the contribution of forests to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular with respect to poverty eradication and environmental sustainability; and provide a framework for national action and international cooperation.

Capacity Development to support MAR

In 2016, the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat began implementation of a capacity development project on 鈥淢onitoring Progress towards Sustainable Forest Management (SFM)鈥� aimed at supporting and assisting six project countries (Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Mongolia, Peru and the Philippines) in developing a comprehensive and efficient system for monitoring progress towards sustainable forest management. This would be achieved through a step-by-step approach, which included conducting inventories of existing forest-related data, mapping data gaps, addressing these gaps and selecting appropriate indicators. The project has given particular attention to socio-economic aspects of forests including livelihoods, food security and poverty reduction. It also takes financial flows for SFM. The socio-economic benefits of forests are particularly important to societies in the 6 selected countries, yet these are the areas where methodology is missing, and data is either very weak or non-existent. One of the project鈥檚 main achievements has been the adoption and use of a multisectoral and multi-stakeholder approach in the development of the reporting frameworks in countries. Monitoring frameworks have been developed in four of the six project countries.

From 2011 to 2012, the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat (UNFFS) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations organized five regional capacity building workshops in Asia-Pacific, East & Southern Africa, West & Central Africa, North Africa, Mediterranean and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The two main objectives of the workshops were to strengthen and support the capacity of UNFF focal points and other relevant stakeholders in developing countries in reporting to the UNFF on the progress made in the implementation of the forest instrument; and to streamline and simplify the reporting format facilitating voluntary national reporting to UNFF10 on the implementation of the forest instrument and a balanced reporting on its four GOFs.