Strengthen the information and databases on forest and tree resource.

 

The FAO has a mandate to “...collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to food, nutrition and agriculture” (Article I of the Basic Texts of FAO). Activities in forestry sector statistics and information will continue on: 

• the development of common terms and the harmonization of definitions; 

• the collection of production, trade and capacity statistics for wood products, pulp and paper, wood energy and forest products marketing;

 • forest resource assessments – including information on natural forests and plantations, forests available for wood supply, global forest and ecological zone maps, forest change, forest biomass, non-wood products, biological diversity, protected areas, forest fires, forest genetic resources and forest and tree resources outside the formal forest boundaries. 

The FAO forestry Web site, already offering broad and deep information on all aspects of forestry in multiple languages, will be further developed. Existing on-line databases will be expanded and harmonized, and an increasing proportion of the forestry information of FAO, both textual and statistical, will be made available electronically. Training and institutional strengthening in the area of information will continue to be important.