Building regional capacities in Latin America and the Caribbean for harmonizing forest information

T5.13 Forest without borders: National Forest Inventory Networks and their potential for large scale monitoring and reporting
Carla Ramirez-Zea1 , Iciar Alberdi2, Joberto ee Freitas3, David Morales-Hidalgo1
1 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
2 Forests Science Centre (ICIFOR-INIA)
3 Federal University of Amazonas

Abstract
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) recognizes the importance of networking for enhancing forest information. During the Thirty-first meeting of the LAC Forestry Commission (COFLAC) in 2019, delegates recommended to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provide support for building-up the National Forest Inventory (NFI) network in this region. In 2020 the initiative was presented to 11 countries, led by the Brazilian Forest Service with collaborative support from FAO and the Institute of Forestry Sciences of the Higher Council for Scientific Research of Spain. The first collaborative work is the publication about the state of the art of the National Forest Inventories in LAC[1]. The publication paved the way for the next harmonization efforts, focused on three prioritized variables: forest area, volume, and aboveground biomass.

This paper describes the harmonization process of forest definition for NFIs in LAC, highlighting the paramount importance in terms of unified reporting for international assessments, such as the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the progress reports on climate change, and for the mechanism of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). During the study consultations were conducted with 23 LAC countries regarding the thresholds for the main criteria used to define forests, including minimum area (0.5 ha), canopy cover (10%), and tree height (5 m). The analysis revealed that 40% (9) of the countries reported forest areas below the minimum area threshold, 35% (8) reported canopy coverage above the threshold, and less than 1% (2) reported tree heights below the minimum threshold. The reasons reported for not adhering to the FRA thresholds are special situations in forest ecosystems, technological limitations, and the opportunities and potential use of FRA criteria for the countries.

The study discusses the challenges for the LAC region to broaden the harmonization results with those responsible land use and land cover monitoring and securing adequate funding resources to operationalize the FRA definition. Addressing these challenges may need additional time for the interpretation using new thresholds, and for updating the time series of the greenhouse gas inventories.[1] https://doi.org/10.4060/cb7791en

1. 26th IUFRO World Congress
Welcome to the
Stockholm, Sweden, 23–29 June 2024

2. Building regional capacities in Latin America and the
Caribbean for harmonizing forest information
Carla Ramírez-Zea
National Forest Inventory advisor - FAO

3. 1980 –2000
2001 –2005
2006 –2010
2011 –2015
2016 –2020
2021 –
Sin information
History of multipurpose
National Forest
Inventories in LAC
© Dan Altrel, Guatemala
© CONAFOR, México
© Carla Ramírez, Honduras
© CONAFOR, México
© Jorge Armijos, Ecuador
© Unidad Forestal, Bahamas
© Dan Altrel
© CONAFOR, México
© Carla Ramírez
© ForestryUnit, Bahamas
© Jorge Armijos
© Miambiente, Panama

4. Achievements IFN-LAC networkü21 countries/5 territories, 16
countries adhered to the statutes
•General Assembly – August
2023- Steering Committee
üLatin America and the Caribbean
Forest Commission (COFLAC):
•4 recommendations to FAO for
supporting the network
•1 side event in 2023
ü4 publications
•2 expert meetings reports (Manaus and
Turrialba)
•NFI LAC forest inventories reference
book (English and Spanish)
•Estimations and interpretation of
biodiversity indicators (collaboration
from INIA-Spain)
ü9 meetings on harmonization
•Regional forest definition harmonized
•Volume and biomass definitions on
going
üInternational trainings:
•Estimation and interpretation of
biodiversity indicators using NFI data –
by INIA-Spain

5. Content
•Importance and history of NFIs in
Latin America and the Caribbean.
•Data collection methodologies and
estimation of the most important
indicators in 21 countries: area,
volume and biomass.
•Similarities and differences of NFIs
designs, challenges and
opportunities, and future prospects
NFI-LAC reference book
Spanish: https://doi.org/10.4060/cb7791es
English: https://doi.org/10.4060/cb7791en

6. Survey: LAC Forest Definitions
21 countries and 5 territories
Belice
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Honduras
Nicaragua
Mexico
Panamá
Bahamas
Cuba
Dominican Republic
French Guiana-Martinica-
Guadaloupe
Jamaica
Puerto Rico - US Virgin
Islands
Suriname
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Chile
Ecuador
Paraguay
Perú
Uruguay
Venezuela

7. Implementation of forest
definition in LAC
Minimum areaCanopy CoverMinimum Heigth
Number of countries
Area
(ha)LAWNFIRSFRAREDD+
0,55138138
144967
Other147547
CC
%LAWNFIRSFRAREDD+
108104135
30477611
Other1161247
Ht
(m)LAWNFIRSFRAREDD+
322123
51018111913
Other941228

8. Towards regional common forest defintion
Conclusions and challenges
•5 countries with reporting capability to all FRA criteria and
thresholds
•Reporting the forest area is out of NFI responsibility in some
countries. Change to FRA thresholds need the discussion with
other institutions and a national decision.
•It is necessary to overcome financial challenges to collect
smaller threshold data.
•Communication support is key to justify changes.
•Technical discussions are necessary to harmonize how to
operationalize the forest definition in some forest ecotypes.

9. Next steps and comments from countries for
applying a common forest definition
•The participants of LAC countries agreed to follow FRA thresholds for
the common regional definition and next regional/subregional reporting
exercises.
•The regional/subregional reporting exercises can provide better
understanding on the comparability and transparency advantages for
updating national policies and for the international reports.
•Countries could take advantage of the support for applying the new
European regulation for free-deforestation value chains, because it
use FRA thresholds as for 2020.

10. Thank you for your attention!
Carla Ramírez-Zea, Iciar Alberdi , Joberto Veloso De Freitas, David Morales-
Hidalgo
Acknowledgment:
Participants from the IFN-LAC network countries
Partners