Joint Working Party on Forest Economic and Statistics UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists Joint Working Party on Forest Economic and Statistics on Monitoring Forest Resources for SFM in the UNECE Region

Working Party guidance The Joint FAO-UNECE Working Party at its last session (March 2005, Geneva) provided quidance to work on the FRA and C&I for SFM in the region, thus providing the «starting point» guidance for the Team of Specialists…(TIM/EFC/WP.2/2005/9, pp. 4-6)

Focus of JWP session contribution to the global Forest Resource Assessment 2005 implementation; results of the final meeting of the regional Team of Specialists (ToS) on FRA; planning and modalities of the new Team of Specialists; UNECE/FAO contribution to the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) 2007/2008; including contribution to reporting on C&I for Sustainable Forest Management.

Global FRA 2005 (a) Working Party: - welcomed the well-established coordination between regional and global FRA teams in the process of this project implementation; noted the time-consuming and challenging process of providing FRA 2005 data by countries, checking and validation of these data, as well as the lessons learned from the process; urged those countries, which have not yet provided FRA 2005 country reports to do so as soon as possible…

Global FRA 2005 (b) The necessity to maintain the continuity of classifications, terms and definitions applied in the regional and global FRA- and C&I- related work was strongly emphasized. Role of the regional Team of Specialists (former and newly-established) in this respect was noted.

Regional Team of Specialists (a) Working Party: approved the report & recommendations of the final ToS meeting (Washington DC, USA, September 2004), - endorsed the provisional agenda for the inaugural meeting of the new ToS (Geneva, April 2005).

Regional Team of Specialists (b) Working Party: commended the outstanding work done by the regional ToS on Forest Resources Assessment during the last years, and expressed the expectation of comparable standards of performance from the successor Team….

MCPFE 2007/08 reporting (a) Working Party approved: ToS / secretariat proposals for the UNECE/FAO contribution to the MCPFE 2007/08 reporting on “State of Forests and Sustainable Forest Management in Europe”, including “Road map” of the process, suggested timetable and modalities of this work.

MCPFE 2007/08 reporting (b) Working Party noted that the suggested timetable is subject to adjustment, depending on the finally established date of the Warsaw Ministerial Conference. The strong cooperation between the UNECE/FAO secretariat and MCPFE Liaison Unit Warsaw (LUW) was noted and supported.

MCPFE 2007/08 reporting (c) Working Party recommended that the technical details of the Enquiry (questionnaire) for the MCPFE 2007/ 08 reporting be carefully discussed at the first meeting of the ToS …

MCPFE 2007/08 reporting (d) Some practical suggestion: reporting C&I data in 3 points in time (“reference periods”), change data reporting, and use of the information available from other providers (e.g. EUROSTAT, IPCC, EEA, JRC-Ispra), preference that the reporting for Warsaw refers to the same years as the FRA 2005.

MCPFE Advisory Group and ToS Working Party underlined the need for a strong cooperation between the UNECE/FAO ToS and MCPFE Advisory Group (being established), and noted the mutually supportive role of these groups.

MCPFE and Montreal processes Working Party supported the regional ToS' efforts to contribute to the harmonisation of the countries’ reporting on C&I for SFM between the MCPFE and Montreal processes, while respecting the autonomy and decision making procedures of each process.

MCPFE and Montreal processes The necessity to establish a working relation in this respect with the Technical Advisory Committee of the Montreal Process was noted… (ToS meeting in Wasington, September 2004, LUW contacts, Mr. Mark Gillis contacts, planned Workshop in Poland…)

Working Party support The Working Party confirmed the necessity to maintain the regional FRA- and C&I- related work in the future, and endorsed the activities which are underway and planned in work area 2 “Forest Resources Assessment and Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management in the Region”. Financial /resources support and capacity building – That is the issue….

Thank You ! Questions, Comments ?… Working Party documents on web: http://www.unece.org/trade/timber/docs/ stats-sessions/stats-27/stats-27.htm Thank You ! Questions, Comments ?…