San Juan, Puerto Rico June 9-13, 2008 North American Forest Commission Inventory, Monitoring and Assessment Working Group San Juan, Puerto Rico June 9-13, 2008 Commissioners, Dr. El-Lakany and FAO Board of Alternates Fellow WG members and guests It was a honour to lead in the preparation of this technical paper and a privilege to have the opportunity to make the presentation on behalf of our team. The team included:

Objectives Share research and information Take advantage of opportunities for collaboration and scientific exchange on forest inventory and monitoring Focus on: Fostering compatible approaches Use of remote sensing and other technologies Sponsor and facilitate exchanges to build capacity Advise member countries Fostering communication At the November 2003 meeting of National Correspondents, FAO encouraged the use of optional sub-global reporting as a means to improve data compatibility and cooperation. NAFC offers the opportunity for 3 Montreal Process countries constituting North America to pursue common protocols and reporting. Thus, while the regional reports are not sanctioned by FAO, they are encouraged. So the NAFC WG explored reporting at a continental level through the aggregation of the respective NFIs.

Accomplishments 2001 Victoria  2002 Denver 2004 Guadalajara 2005 Date Location Minutes 2001 Victoria  2002 Denver 2004 Guadalajara 2005 Peterborough 2006 Tuscon 2007 Punta Nizuc 2008 Meetings 2000 Portland to initiate WG At the November 2003 meeting of National Correspondents, FAO encouraged the use of optional sub-global reporting as a means to improve data compatibility and cooperation. NAFC offers the opportunity for 3 Montreal Process countries constituting North America to pursue common protocols and reporting. Thus, while the regional reports are not sanctioned by FAO, they are encouraged. So the NAFC WG explored reporting at a continental level through the aggregation of the respective NFIs. - available at http://www.fs.fed.us/global/nafc/inventory/

Accomplishments Presentations: NAFC Commission Meeting (Vera Cruz) Monitoring, Science and Technology Workshop (Denver) CIF/SAF Joint AGM (Edmonton) Reports: At the November 2003 meeting of National Correspondents, FAO encouraged the use of optional sub-global reporting as a means to improve data compatibility and cooperation. NAFC offers the opportunity for 3 Montreal Process countries constituting North America to pursue common protocols and reporting. Thus, while the regional reports are not sanctioned by FAO, they are encouraged. So the NAFC WG explored reporting at a continental level through the aggregation of the respective NFIs.

Ecoregion Database What: An integrated spatially defined North American forest inventory database using the FAO ecological reporting framework and common North America-wide protocols. Why: To report on forests in a consistent manner for all major forest ecosystems of North America from a continental perspective. How: Enlist country forest inventory experts to define structure, common attributes for database and potential outputs. I will provide an overview of the NFI systems in each country to give you an understanding of the basis for this assessment and also to illustrate the opportunities that lay ahead given the direction each country is moving towards with their NFI. I do not take credit for the descriptions provided for the US or Mexico, and please do not hesitate to correct any misrepresentations.

Ecoregion Database Preliminary data attributes FAO Ecological Zones Forest area Covertype (predominant genus Status (available/protected) Ownership (public/private) Age class Site index/productivity class Volume/biomass – total by species group

FAO Ecological Zones for North America These Ecological zones are not necessarily forest zones but provide the entire ecological context within which forests occur. 20 Ecological Zones 6 tropical 5 sub-tropical 5 temperate 3 boreal 1 boreal 21 is polar

Results: Database and Products The NFIs were then analyzed by FAO Ecozone and data were extracted, harmonized and combined to generate a simple database from which a number of products were produced, including tables of area breakdown.

North American Land Cover Illustration of land class by percent using pie chart – where the aggregation of zone shows that FOWL occupy 47% of the landbase 47% is non forest 6% is water And we have a small component of unknown

Forest Land in North America Forest land can also be classified and mapped by Ecological Zone

Average Wood Volumes In this figure average wood volume is mapped The total volume in all Ecological Zones is approximately 63 billion m3 Of the total volume: - 3 % in Tropical - 18 % in Sub-tropical - 56 % in Temperate - 23 % in Boreal Ecological Zones - less than 1% in the Polar zone The average across all zones is 92 m3/ha

Forest Type Mixed Forest is not predominant in any Ecological Zone but still comprises 14 % of the forest land in North America Coniferous forest type comprises 53% of the forest land Broadleaved forest type comprises 33% 6

Work Plans (1) Thematic Groups Database Competitiveness Consultative role Competitiveness Ecosystem Resiliency Participatory role Inventory/monitoring work has been documented Information will be compiled into a single report to facilitate the work of all Thematic Groups 8

Work Plans (2) Ecoregion Database Sponsor a workshop to examine potential content, structure of the database Further develop database to support Thematic Groups Develop report and a poster for presentation at the World Forestry Congress in 2009 Commission for Environmental Cooperation Develop forest theme maps for North American Environmental Atlas 8

Work Plans (3) Information and Knowledge Sharing Establish Google Group for communication within the WG Working Group Brochure for Communication Compress Working Group information and products into brochure format 8

Membership Mexico: USA: Canada: Arturo Victoria Francisco Takaki Takaki Rigoberto Palafox Rivas USA: Greg Reams Brad Smith Dennis May Pat Miles Canada: Mark Gillis Simon Bridge Joe Kapron Alex Song