International Technical Webinar - Learning from experiences to increase forest data transparency for climate action
Invitation to Technical Webinar Languages: English, French and Spanish
Wednesday 23 March 2022 14:30 - 16:00 (Rome time)
Fast registration HERE

Learning from experiences to increase forest data transparency for climate action
BACKGROUND Launched in 2019, the "Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector” (CBIT-Forest) is a project implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funded by the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) trust fund established under the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This project was designed to increase the capacity of developing countries to collect, analyse and disseminate forest-related data. These efforts would in turn enhance reporting and transparency. Project activities have been implemented at the global, regional and national levels, with key lessons learnt at each level. In this context, this webinar, “Learning from experiences to increase forest data transparency for climate action” will highlight key results of the project, including main messages and the products and events used to promote capacity building and knowledge exchanges. This international technical webinar is part of the series organized by the FAO elearning Academy, Agreenium (French training and research alliance for agriculture, food, environment and global health), UN-ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), and Future Food Institute.  These webinars are an opportunity for all of us to share experiences and lessons learnt, discuss challenges, and propose innovative solutions and models. They aim to provide a holistic and comprehensive view of current trends in thematic areas related to global challenges, by combining development research and innovation perspectives. The main objective of these technical webinars is to give practitioners the opportunity to interact with international experts, United Nations officers, University professors, researchers and fellow participants, throughout the world. Webinars can be attended as interactive online sessions on Zoom, where sharing perspectives and asking questions to experts is encouraged. These sessions are also recorded and therefore available at any time, through the FAO elearning Academy: elearning.fao.org. OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION
  • Inform about the results from the CBIT-Forest project;
  • Share knowledge and experience from pilot countries participating in the CBIT-Forest project: Côte d'Ivoire, Guatemala, Thailand and Uganda;
  • Launch of the publication ‘Towards open and transparent forest data for climate action: Experiences and lessons learnt’.
SPEAKERS This technical webinar, moderated by Ms Marieke Sandker (FAO), will be delivered by Mr Julian Fox (FAO), Ms Rocío Cóndor-Golec (FAO), Ms Cristina Petracchi (FAO), Mr Anssi Pekkarinen (FAO), Ms Jenny Wong (UNFCCC), Ms Namrata Patodia Rastogi (GEF). The round table discussions will also be enriched by speakers representing pilot countries where CBIT-Forest has been implemented: Mr Eric Konan (REDD+ Permanent Executive Secretariat, Côte d'Ivoire), Mr Martir Gabriel Vásquez Us (Instituto Nacional de Bosques, Guatemala), Mr Somyot Saengin (Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plan Conservation, Thailand), and Mr Bob Kazungu (Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda).
 
Julian Fox is the Team Leader of the National Forest Monitoring (NFM) team sitting under the Forestry Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As team leader of NFM, Julian coordinates NFM’s global normative work, the development and implementation of NFM tools (namely Open Foris and SEPAL), and a significant portfolio of country support activities carried out by the NFM team (active in forty-five countries). Julian Fox has 20 years of experience in forest monitoring as a manager of international and national projects, researcher, teacher and technical specialist. He also has 7 years of experience living and working in developing countries managing projects in Papua New Guinea and Zambia. Julian holds a PhD in forest monitoring.
Rocío Cóndor-Golec is leading the CBIT-Forest project. She is coordinating activities to make forest data more transparent, accessible and available and helping developing countries meet the Paris Agreement's enhanced transparency framework (ETF), in collaboration with key international stakeholders. Rocío has 20 years of experience working at the national and the international level on measurement, reporting and verification under the UNFCCC and currently supports the ETF implementation within FAO.  Rocío holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science and a PhD in Forest Ecology.
Cristina Petracchi heads the FAO elearning Academy. She manages and coordinates the design, development, delivery and language adaptations of an extensive portfolio of elearning courses and blended learning programmes for the benefit of FAO member countries. She is also responsible for the creation of University Master’s and Post Graduate Degree Programmes. She engages actively in consolidating partnerships across United Nations agencies, academic institutions and universities, regional organizations, CSOs and NGOs for capacity development initiatives. In addition to a University Degree in Biological Sciences, Ms Petracchi holds a PhD in Nutrition and Food Science, and has several years of experience of capacity development activities in several countries.
 
Anssi Pekkarinen is a Senior Forestry Officer at FAO and coordinator of the Global Forest Resources Assessment programme. Pekkarinen studied in the University of Helsinki, Finland and holds a D.Sc. in Forest mensuration and management. He is specialized in forest inventory, remote sensing and geographic information systems. Before joining FAO in 2009, Pekkarinen worked as a research scientist at the Finnish Forest Research Institute (1996-2005) and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (2005-2008). Pekkarinen has more than 25 years of experience in analyzing forest resource information with remote sensing and field inventory data and he is one of the founding members of FAO’s Open Foris Initiative.
Jenny Wong is a Programme Officer in the Reporting and Review subdivision of the Transparency Division at the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. She works on issues relating to land use, land-use change and forestry and climate change, in particular, REDD+ measuring, reporting and verification by developing countries, and she is a Member of the FRA Advisory Group. Before joining the secretariat in 2004, Jenny has been serving the Malaysian government in various capacities, including at the Maritime Research Institute, focusing on marine protected areas and at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia, where she started working on forest and climate change policy matters. She obtained a Ph.D in Forest Resources from Oregon State University.
Namrata Patodia Rastogi supports the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF’s) portfolio for the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT). She provides technical advice related to CBIT; and supports operational and technical aspects related to the CBIT portfolio, working with GEF Agencies to ensure delivery of impactful projects within CBIT. She has more than ten years of experience working on climate change issues internationally, managing climate-related projects in Asia and Africa. She holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University.
Marieke Sandker is coordinating FAO’s country support on REDD+ reporting both to the UNFCCC (Forest Reference Levels, REDD+ results and GHG inventories) and for accessing jurisdictional REDD+ Results Based Payments (RBPs). She advises and supports countries with the establishment of National Forest Monitoring Systems and on MRV requirements for different RBP opportunities. Marieke has 20 years of experience in capacity development in the forestry sector in Africa, Latin America and Asia, working for several international organizations (FAO, CIFOR/IUCN, ONF). She holds an MSc degree in Environmental Science from Wageningen University and Research Center and a PhD in Forest Ecology from the Autonomous University of Madrid.
HOW TO ATTEND The webinar is free and open to everyone, provided you have the link to the platform. To join the webinar session on Zoom, kindly register here. We suggest you to use Google Chrome in order to join the webinar. We also recommend you to check your time zone here.

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Please note that webinars have a limit of 1 000 simultaneous participants. For every webinar we will proceed with providing access to the first 1 000 registered participants. The FAO elearning Academy webinars are always recorded, and the recordings are accessible, at anytime, through the FAO eleraning Academy: elearning.fao.org.
PARTNERS African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services - AFAAS Agence Française de Développement - AFD AGRHYMET Regional Centre Agricultural Research Centre for International Development - CIRAD Alliance Bioversity International - CIAT Costa Rican Gastronomy Foundation - FUCOGA Council for Agricultural Research and Economics - CREA Danone Deutsche Welthungerhilfe EU International Partnerships Academy European Union - EU Family Farming Knowledge Platform - FFKP Forest Department of Bangladesh Forestry Commission of Ghana Forestry Development Authority of Liberia Forum for Agricultural Risk Management in Development - FARM-D French training and research alliance for agriculture, food, environment and global health - Agreenium Future Food Institute - FFI Global Centre for Nutrition and Health - NNEdPro Global Child Nutrition Foundation - GCNF Global Environment Facility - GEF Institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l'environnement - AgroParisTech Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement - INRAE Institut national d'études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - Montpellier SupAgro Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies - IDEAM International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies - CIHEAM International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA International Center for Biosaline Agriculture - ICBA International Fund for Agricultural Development - IFAD International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization - ITC-ILO Italian Agency for Development Cooperation - AICS La Sapienza University LUISS University Makerere University Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Mc Gill University - Margaret A. Gilliam Institute for Global Food Security Mediterranean Universities Union - UNIMED Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Democratic Republic of Congo Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda National Food Technology Research Centre - NFTRC National Forest Institute of Guatemala - INAB Natural Resources Institute - NRI New Partnership for Africa’s Development - NEPAD Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative - NORAD Open University of Catalonia - UOC OpenMed Papua New Guinea Forest Authority - PNGFA Partnership for Child Development - PCD Platform for Agricultural Risk Management - PARM Southern Hemisphere Association of Fresh Fruit Exporters - SHAFFE United Nations Development Programme - UNDP United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific - UNESCAP United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - UNFCCC United Nations Scaling Up Nutrition Movement - SUN Movement UNITELMA University University of Göttingen University of Zimbabwe World Food Programme - WFP World Resources Institute - WRI
Please visit the FAO elearning Academy elearning.fao.org, which offers free multilingual courses on the thematic areas covered in the Technical Webinar. You can access all recordings here.
Feel free to explore the Digital Catalogue at https://elearning.fao.org/course/view.php?id=715 or click the image below.
See online version