Forest data gets $7m to enhance accuracy, accessibility - NaijaAgroNet

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In order to make forestry more sustainable and resilient, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Finland have signed an agreement to enhance the capacity of countries in forest resources and data management especially in Africa worth $7 million, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The agreement, NaijaAgroNet gathered is coming from multi-donor project to be implemented jointly by the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment and National Forest Monitoring teams over a period of four years, with an initial $2,3 million contribution provided by Finland.
Forests are sources of energy, food, income, and provide important services such as climate change mitigation, protection of soil and water resources. Forest ecosystems are of vital importance to rural livelihoods, especially in developing countries.

The new contribution from Finland will support extensive and inclusive capacity-building activities and equal access to training events, tools and materials. In particular, the capacity building activities will focus on Africa, emphasizing the participation of women. It will also enable the provision of tools and techniques that allow countries to collect and analyse up-to-date information on their forest resources as well as report on them to the national and international processes and conventions in a transparent manner and on annual basis.

The ultimate objective of the project is to support the achievement of the objectives of the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 and forest-related SDGs. More specifically, the project will help reduce deforestation and forest degradation by promoting and facilitating sustainable forest management and use, leading to greater economic, social and environmental benefits.

The project will support Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use announced at COP26 UN Climate Conference last November for which Finland is a signatory.

Endorsed by over 140 countries accounting for more than 90 percent of the world’s forests, the Declaration commits its parties to cooperate together to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.

The Declaration was unveiled at the World Leaders Summit ‘Action on Forests and Land Use’, and considered a significant step forward in the fighting against tropical forest loss and climate change.