COLLECTING SAMPLES FOR GLOBAL FOREST MAPPING

Since 1946, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has published the Global Forest Assessment at intervals of 5 to 10 years. Since 1990, FAO has published consolidated data every 5 years as part of the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA). In the beginning, since 1948, forest statistics were published using questionnaires provided by partner countries. From 1980 onwards, more robust techniques were introduced, based on local expertise, remote sensing data and statistical models. This article reports on my experience with the new FAO assessment of global forests for FRA 2020. The article describes the technology and methodology of the sample survey and highlights some interesting features of land use by indigenous peoples and rangelands in the savanna region.