All Eyes on Forest Monitoring

Deforestation is a growing global concern, and with it comes the loss of carbon stored in forests. Earlier this year, many countries and  the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reconfirmed their commitment to jointly prepare the next Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), a comprehensive data collection on the state of the world's forests which is scheduled for release in 2010. FRA 2010 will strengthen the capacity of all countries to monitor their own forests.

 “Deforestation continues at an alarming rate of about 13 million hectares annually at the global level. By combining remote sensing technology with field data collection, we improve the quality of both methods. This provides more accurate information on forest trends and new information on the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation,” concludes Jan Heino FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry. The FRA 2010 survey will include global and regional level on trends in the rate of deforestation, afforestation and national expansion of forests. In addition, FAO, its member countries and partner organizations will undertake a global remote sensing survey of forests. The assessment will cover the whole land surface of the Earth with about 9,000 samples.

To read more, visit http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000884/index.html.