The Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2025 is the result of a collective effort by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Forestry Division, FAO Members, institutional and resource partners, and many individuals.
More than 700 people were involved directly in the FRA 2025 process, including officially nominated national correspondents and their alternates and collaborators, who compiled the detailed country reports; FAO experts and external reviewers, who supported national correspondents in obtaining the best-possible quality and consistency in the country reports; and members of the FRA Advisory Group and international experts, who contributed to the FRA 2025 Expert Consultation by providing guidance on the scope and reporting content of FRA 2025.
The Collaborative Forest Resources Questionnaire partners made important contributions to data collection and review. In particular, Roman Michalak and Bastian Stahl at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) supported the review of national data for the Caucasus and Central Asia and, with Bernhard Wolfslehner at Forest Europe, joint data collection for the pan-European countries. UNECE and Forest Europe also supported the establishment and coordination of the following team of reviewers: Iciar Alberdi, Dragan Čomić, Reija Haapanen, Matti Katila, Liubov Poliakova, Andrzej Talarczyk and Mati Valgepea. Donald Jomha Djossi, Loïc Kenmou and Florence Palla at the Central Africa Forest Observatory of the Central African Forests Commission assisted in the preparation and review of reports for Central African countries. Lars Gunnar Marklund assisted with data collection and review for Central and South America.
Many countries and institutions provided the FRA 2025 process with technical support; the latter include the Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association, the Forest Stewardship Council, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the Natural Resources Institute Finland and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.
FAO staff in regional, subregional and country offices supported the convening of FRA workshops – notably, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific; the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa; the subregional offices for the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, Mesoamerica and Southern Africa; and the country offices of Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius and Senegal.
The FRA 2025 country reporting process and its various activities received direct or indirect financial support from the European Union, Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Government of Norway, the Global Environment Facility, Japan’s Forestry Agency in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Swedish Forest Agency – Skogsstyrelsen, the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, UNECE, and the Forest Europe Liaison Unit Bonn.
The writing, preparation and publication of this report was coordinated by Anssi Pekkarinen, Örjan Jonsson, Monica Garzuglia and Chiara Patriarca. Other contributors from the FRA team were Anne Branthomme, Valeria Contessa, Xavier De Lamo and Bastian Stahl.
Other FAO staff, and staff from other organizations, also contributed to the writing of the report. Francesca Felicani Robles and Daniele Lenci authored the chapter on forest policy and legislation. William de Groot, Amy Duchelle, Carolina Gallo Granizo, Peter Moore, Lara Steil and Petteri Vuorinen at FAO and Jesus San-Miguel and Duarte Oom, both at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, contributed to the forest-fire analysis and write-up. Temitope Adelola and Yelena Finegold contributed to the forest restoration section. Jarkko Koskela and Branislav Trudic contributed to the section on growing-stock composition, and Arvydas Lebedys prepared the box on wood removals. Yonca Gurbuzer, Rattiya Lippe (Thünen Institute) and Sven Walter authored the box on forest employment.
The FRA 2025 country reporting process was supported by Mohamed Agamy, Andrew Arnell, Anne Branthomme, Valeria Contessa, Giordana Conti, Søren Dalsgaard, Xavier De Lamo, Roberto Fontanarosa, Monica Garzuglia, Alejandro Guzmán, Thomas Harvey, Örjan Jonsson, Pengcheng Lai, Erica Lupi, Lucilla Marinaro, Sara Maulo, Daniela Mercuri, David Morales, Jean Patrick Mosengo Kwey, Chiara Patriarca, Anssi Pekkarinen, Patricia Rodriguez Cevallos, Ann Rotich, Miró Sorja, Bastian Stahl, Rebecca Tavani, Cosimo Togna, Pedro Pablo Vivar Mulas, Madison Ziegler and Alexandra Zmachynskaya. The report was edited by Alastair Sarre. Proofreading was by Jeannie Marshall, layout was by Chiara Caproni, and the cover concept was by Linda Mandell.
FAO is grateful to all countries and areas, institutions and individuals who made FRA 2025 possible.