A National Forest Inventory(NFI*) is a vital component of any scaled-up forestry monitoring initiative. An inaugural workshop focused on this topic was organized by the SLU-CA programme in cooperation with theEU-funded DIABOLO project*. Workshop participants discussed the idea of a NFI as well as methodologies and key indicators for forest monitoring. Around 20 people from national and internarial organisations such as the Forestry Agency*, the Committee for Environmental Protection, Special protected areas of Tajikistan, SLU-CA programme and KfW* project “Climate adaptation through sustainable forestry in important river catchment areas in Tajikistan (CAFT)” joined the discussion.
There are many points of relevance within the DIABOLO project for countries interested in installing remote sensing-based systems for monitoring forest disturbances. Behruz Ilnazarov, National GIS expert of the SLU-CA programme,gave a presentation on forest measuring techniques and forest cover assessment. The presentation was based on the monitoring experiences of the DIABOLO project led by Professor Matthias Dees from University of Freiburg and allowedparticipants to gain more information and examples of forest monitoring and what NFI means.
Participants voiced their interest inusing NFI in Tajikistan in the future. The results from the DIABOLO project have been recognized as a major basis for developing an NFI methodology. Future steps involve elaborationof a concept note for the NFI, identification of the key national hosting partners, and presenting the concept and idea to potential donors such as FAO* and the World Bank.
Davlatali Sharipov, Head of Management Department of the Forestry Agency said:“NFI in Tajikistan has never been conducted previously, except during the Soviet period where the management plans for local forest enterprises were developed. To manage forests sustainably, we very much need qualitative as well as quantitative data on forests for the whole country. Therefore, we very much look forward to the results of the current workshop and in general the work of GIZ,which is a pioneer for forest monitoring.”
*Abbreviations/Explanation:NFI — National Forest Inventory DIABOLO project – EU funded project “Distributed, Integrated and Harmonised Forest Information for Bioeconomy Outlooks”
Forestry Agency — Forestry Agency under the Government of the Republic Tajikistan
KfW – (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau -”Credit Institute for Reconstruction”) a German state-owned development bankprovides financing to governments, public enterprises and commercial banks engaged in microfinance and SME promotion in developing countries.It was formed in 1948 after World War II as part of the Marshall Plan. As of 2018, it is Germany’s third largest bank by balance sheet.
FAO — Food and Agriculture Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.