16 July 2008: The
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has announced that the 2010
Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2010) will include a remote sensing
survey, which will document trends in the rate of deforestation, afforestation
and natural forest expansion over the last three decades; provide easy access
to remote sensing imagery; create a methodology and framework for monitoring of
forest change; and enhance countries’ capacities to monitor, assess and report
on changes in forest cover.

Jan Heino, FAO
Assistant Director-General for Forestry, said “the need to improve national
forest monitoring is overwhelming as the demand for information has never been
greater.” He added that “national policy processes are striving to address
cross-cutting issues such as poverty alleviation and food security related to
forests.” Deforestation continues at an alarming rate of about 13 million
hectares annually at the global level. By combining remote sensing technology
with field data collection, we improve the quality of both methods. This
provides more accurate information on forest trends and new information on the
drivers of deforestation and forest degradation,” concluded Heino. [FAO Press
Release]