FO:APFC/2000/INF.6

INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS FOR SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT: LINKING NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

1. The Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) recently completed a Forestry Sector Outlook Study, which assessed the current state of forest utilization and conservation in the region and provided insights into the likely developments in the forestry sector until the year 2010. While the study and the process were perceived as a genuine success, the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission emphasized the need for improving the quality of information used by policy makers to take decisions and to prepare the sector for the changes foreseen by the study. In pursuit of this, the Commission has established a Working Group on Forestry Statistics and Information and requested FAO to provide support to strengthen forestry data collection and analysis capability. This initiative "Information and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management", funded by the European Commission, complements and builds upon these efforts and aims to provide catalytic support to the efforts of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission.

2. The overall objective of this partnership is to promote sustainable management of trees and forests in the tropics founded on policies that integrate and balance relevant economic, environmental and social aspects. Within this context, it aims to achieve the specific objectives of strengthening national capacity to collect, compile and disseminate reliable and up-to-date information on forestry, to improve forestry sector analysis and to make that information more readily available to policy makers.

3. The programme is implemented in 13 countries in South and Southeast Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam). It is focused on three inter-related themes, namely (i) problem-oriented data gathering and updating of information, (ii) pilot studies specifically focusing on methodological approaches and issues relating to topics not traditionally dealt with while collecting forestry statistics and (iii) forest policy review.

4. Apart from improving the mechanism to collect and analyse policy relevant data in support of sustainable forest management, the project aims to facilitate the establishment of a network of forestry statistical correspondents and supports the Commission's Working Group on Forestry Statistics and Information. At the end of the project (December 2002), the forestry information systems in the participating countries will have improved significantly, policy analysis and planning will be much more efficient and the countries will have more reliable information to help them act upon the conclusions drawn from the Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study.

5. Operating under the guidance of the Commission's Working Group on Forestry Statistics and Information, the project is implemented by FAO in close partnership with experts from the participating countries, relying as much as possible on their expertise and experience. Further, it aims to take full advantage of all ongoing national and regional efforts related to forestry information gathering and analysis. It also draws on the experience gained from similar EC-FAO efforts in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Contacts

Ms. Qiang Ma, FAO, Rome; tel: +39-06-570-55011; fax: 570-55514; E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Patrick Durst, FAO, Bangkok; tel: +66-2-281-7844 Ext 139; fax: 280.0758; E-mail: [email protected] mailto:[email protected]