 So welcome everybody, we will start the webinar in just a few minutes on your screen you will see a poll so please start filling that. And once you've built in the poll please also use the chat to introduce yourselves because this webinar is all about you and interacting with you so really like to know who we have in the room. We will give it just two more minutes for people that are joining the webinar. And then we will get started. So, good morning for everybody in the Americas. Good evening for those in Asia Pacific, and good day for those in Africa and Europe. So, please be reminded, I see people are starting to introduce themselves that's great. Nice to see we have here please be reminded to select everyone when you write in the chat, otherwise only the host will see your message. So, perfect. We will just wait one more minute, and then we will get started with the webinar. So, welcome. People are joining that is great. Great. Nigeria, Germany, all these different places. Great. Wonderful to have you with us. Jampolo please check your screen. We can see the. Okay, thank you. So, please fill in the poll so we can know a little bit more about all the people in the room and in a few minutes we will get started and we will see who's with us today. Please be reminded in the chat to select everyone when you type so that we can all see your introductions. Wonderful. Okay, so let us get started as people are still introducing themselves so welcome everybody to this webinar. So, quick housekeeping on Zoom format, so that is to minimize audio problems as we're many today. So, that doesn't mean we do not want to interact with you that's actually what this webinar is all about. So, please use the chat for introducing yourself as many people are doing already. And as you have questions going along through the webinar please use the Q&A you will see there's a chat box and there's a Q&A box. Please use the Q&A for any questions you might have, and if the question is directed to someone in specific. Please let us know. Great, so we can now be closing the poll and perhaps we can see the results on screen. There we go. So, who we have with us today, a lot of government people, wonderful university research, and many more that looks wonderful. Then we have a lot of Africa, Asia, Oceania, okay it's very late, sorry about that, but you can see the recording and Latin America, great. All right. And then we almost have a gender balance, a few more male participants. Wonderful, so wonderful to see you all and wonderful to see all these, who we have in our virtual room today. So, in this webinar, we will have one presentation which will be followed by a 30 minute panel discussion with high level speakers from representatives of the Global Environment Facility of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as representatives of four countries we have with us today. Cote d'Ivoire, Guatemala, Thailand and Uganda. So, you can see on this very nice slide, you can see all speakers that we will have with us today. So, after the panel discussion, we will have 20 minutes for question and answers, and that's what we'd really like to hear from you. We will be answering to all questions, but we will not be able to take all questions in speaking, we will try to answer some of the questions also in writing. So, in total this webinar will last for one and a half hours and afterwards we will be sharing the recordings with you. So, this is a knowledge sharing webinar for the project building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector. This CIBIT forest is a two and a half year project implemented through FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment and the National Forest Monitoring Teams, and its partners. It's financed by the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency and the CIBIT Trust Fund of the JET. The CIBIT aims to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to collect, analyze and disseminate forest related data to make forest data transparent and accessible in line with the enhanced transparency framework of the Paris Agreement. So, thanks again for joining us and finding some times in your busy schedules today. So, what we will do today is first present and discuss the main results and outcomes of the CIBIT forest project. We will share knowledge and experience from the pilot countries participating in the project, and we will launch the publication towards open and transparent forest data for climate action experiences and lessons learned. So, this session will be in English with simultaneous translation in Spanish and French. So, you can switch to the Spanish and French channel by clicking the globe shaped icon that you should see at the bottom of your zoom window. So, if you want to listen in Spanish then at the bottom of your screen you have the globe icon and you can click on that to listen in Spanish with Spanish simultaneous interpretation. If you'd like to listen in French then at the bottom of your screen you'll find the globe icon. Then you can click on that and you can select the language that you would like to listen to so that you can have simultaneous interpretation in French. Christina, thank you for being with us today. Who's the leader of the FAO eLearning Academy. Christina, over to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for joining us and welcome to this webinar. In this webinar, FAO would like, together with our partners, the global environment facility and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. What we'd like to do is to share with you all the outcomes of the project on forest data transparency and also our joint experience in the implementation. So, the first thing I wanted to mention is that despite all the challenges also it was during also the in the middle of a pandemic so despite all the challenges, the project was extremely successful and actually member communities really expressed their satisfaction. But, and actually I have to say that the various challenges of the project have actually allowed us to explore new ways to innovate in our delivery. And as you know, language remains a barrier for learning, and we have done a huge effort to try to design and develop the course on forest transparency, and then adapt it and localize it in six languages in a very short time frame and we have it now it's available in English, in French, in Spanish, in Arabic, in Chinese and in Russian. And this was actually, we have done this only for one other course, but to be able to have them in six languages and we also have the course in six languages and also in a downloadable format so that countries with connectivity challenges have the possibility to download the course and do it offline basically. We have also implemented the digital badge certification system, which is a system that certifies the acquisition of competences. It allows professionals to progress talents within organization and also to increase employment opportunities and we have done the certification system in six languages. And this was also very very challenges and it was never done before. We have also created a downloadable package of the entire course content, which is available in printable format, which means that anybody who would like to do and do an organize a training workshop, a face to face intervention can download the package and just have all the materials ready. And we have also designed and developed and also delivered a massive open online course on forest transparency, and this was done simultaneously in three languages with the certification done in three languages, and the book was delivered three times and and this was also very challenging and this was also something that we had never done before so this has also allowed us to innovate in this sense. And so, as you know, MOOCs are very powerful capacity development intervention. They allow to scale up learning experiences and they allow skills and competences acquisition, but they are time bound. So, in order to share the content of the MOOC and allow countries to adopt the methodology that we have used and also adapt the content to their local context, we have transferred the MOOC in three languages and made it available through the FAE Learning Academy. So basically, anyone at any time can have access to that and that also was never done before. So, I would like to conclude by thanking our partners, Jeff and UNFCCC who have who are also joining us today. I'd like to thank them for their support and collaboration throughout the project, and for giving us the opportunity also of bringing innovation in our learning solutions for the benefit of member countries. Thank you all very much for your time and your attention, and I'd like to give back the floor to Marika. Thank you very much, Christina. It sounds like a great resource. So everybody take advantage of that. Wonderful. Please be reminded again that during this presentation, all the presentations and the panel discussions, do pose your questions in the Q&A. And my colleague, Anna Toli, will be selecting the questions and also you can help her by indicating who your question is directed to. So our next speaker of today is Julian Fox who will be making some introductory remarks. So Julian is a team leader of the National Forest Monitoring Team in the Forestry Division in Fowl. Thanks Julian for being here and over to you. Thank you, Marika. And thank you to everyone for joining today's webinar. It's one of a series organized by the FAOE Learning Academy. Thank you, Christina, for the excellent collaboration at Greenium and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. I would also like to acknowledge the Jeff and the UNFCCC for the long lasting collaboration and for joining us on today's panel. Today's webinar will highlight key experiences and lessons learned from implementing the Sibet Forest Project. The Sibet Forest Project has built upon FAOE's country experiences and networks to further strengthen forest inventories and forest monitoring, provide better reliable data and increase reporting and transparency. The support for increased transparency in the forestry sector could not be timely up starting in 2024 as part of the transparency framework of the Paris Agreement. All countries who have ratified the Paris Agreement will follow a single common transparency process. These reporting requirements outlined in the enhanced transparency framework are universally applicable thanks to the built-in flexibility that characterizes it. To prepare for the implementation of the enhanced transparency framework, Sibet Forest has supported developing countries through capacity development, knowledge sharing activities, aimed at strengthening the collection, interpretation and reporting of forest information. Over the last 10 years, FAOE has proudly helped more than 50 countries obtain reliable data through the establishment and strengthening of national forest monitoring systems. As described in the enhanced transparency framework, the collection of consistent data provides a solid foundation for reporting forest emissions and removals and for tracking progress on nationally determined contributions. Additionally, national forest monitoring systems can provide countries with the ability to respond to their own forest data needs. And with robust data, countries can inform climate policy and improve the sustainable management of their forest resource. National forest monitoring systems collect forest related information in two ways through national forest inventories and through using remote sensing tools. Open forest SEPAL and the framework for ecosystem restoration monitoring are among the platforms developed by FAO that make the collection analysis and reporting of forest data easier and more efficient than ever before. The Sibet Forest project has been helpful in promoting several of these tools and their importance for increasing forest data transparency. In particular, Sibet Forest has helped provide forestry technicians with the proper tools and training for data collection and analysis, a crucial step in the development of consistent and reliable monitoring and reporting. The knowledge, material and workshops developed by Sibet Forest have provided great opportunities for capacity development and improved regional and international knowledge sharing and networking. Looking back on the project which finishes this year, Sibet Forest has conducted many successful events, developed learning materials and the forest and a strengthened forest and climate networks. With lessons learned and insights gained from our pilot countries, which we are very grateful to have us on the panel today. Practitioners can continue to help prepare countries for the enhanced transparency framework reporting requirements. Thank you again for joining us. We really appreciate your engagement and we encourage you to ask questions throughout the session and congratulations colleagues on a really successful Sibet Forest project. Back to you, Maria Ke. Thank you so much, Jillian. Sounds very exciting, all this open source material. Okay, so the next speaker is Rocío Condor. So Rocío is a forestry officer leading the global Sibet Forest project. She's coordinating activities to make forest data more transparent and accessible in the context of the enhanced transparency framework. Thanks for being with us today, Rocío, over to you. Thank you, Maria Ke and Jillian for your kind words and for reminding us, preparations must be made by 2024 to support implementation of the Paris Agreement. I also want to thank our participants and panelists for joining us on this special day as we share experiences and lesson learned. As you will all learn more about the Sibet Forest project, supported coordinated global regional and national forest to step up developing countries' abilities to collect, analyze and disseminate forest related data in line with the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement. These efforts to boost institutional and technical capacities along with increased knowledge sharing and awareness racing comprise the main components of Sibet Forest. Launched globally in 2020, Sibet Forest has accomplished a great deal in past two years. More than 9,000 individuals from around the world benefited from project activities. These figures refers to the total sum of participation and compassing everything from pilot country work activities to webinars and virtual training and knowledge sharing activities. Notably, of these 9,000 participants, 38% were women, a promising indicator of women's participation and empowerment in forest monitoring. Similarly, our outreach products garnered significant participation with practitioners and experts accessing Sibet Forest outreach and dissemination products over 80-80,000 times. More statistics like this as well as breakdowns of the numbers can be found in the project's two-yearing number infographic. Such statistics are what we today call end results, but they are actually building blocks for learning and growth. The publication we are launching today towers open and transparent data for climate action experiences and lesson learn highlights experiences and knowledge acquired at the national, regional and global levels. Open data can help meet global challenges such as poverty, hunger, climate change. I was just saying that open data can help meet global challenges as poverty, hunger, climate change and inequality. And the project has actually worked with two resources for global sharing of forest related data, upgrading the first global forest resources assessment platform, which is now for the first time ever available. So as documented in the publication, open data can be catalysts of collaborative climate solution and can help to promote informed policymaking, driving by up to date data. As national forest monitoring is largely financed by taxpayers, open data strength, public trust in forests and climate policy. Open data makes the decision making process more transparent and public services more efficient and effective. Addressing the concerns of data producers to overcome obstacles to sharing will be fundamental in the coming years. In conditions of trust and transparency, data producers can accelerate this release of open data. However, particularly in the forest sector, a lack of initial data hosting infrastructure is often a deterrent. The need for comprehensive legal arrangement will help create well structured open and transparent sharing of forest data. Addressing the path of obtaining this insight has not been a straight line, although presenting its own challenges the COVID-19 pandemic provides opportunities for us to explore new modalities for carrying out project activities. And that thing is we went, the project shifted from in-person to virtual activities, which broaden our global outreach and enable us to exceed many of our goals. And as Christina mentioned at the beginning, due to this shift, we were able to deliver three editions of a massive open online course, a self-paced e-learning course in six languages. Six country cases studies were also launched under the projects. We were effectively used as tools for training and knowledge sharing. And the project also founded the creation of a series of a national forest inventory e-learning models. As you know, national forest inventories are key for climate, as you know, national forest inventories are key for climate reporting and now learning about national forest inventory is more accessible than ever before. We have developed a national forest monitoring system assessment tool to identify needs and gaps for strengthening forest monitoring to enhance transparency of forest related climate reporting. And not including today's international webinars, CBAT Forest hosted 16 global webinars in two years. CBAT Forest aimed to connect region forest reporting actors by regions. The publication touches on the project's efforts to facilitate regional dialogues in Central American, Massika, Southeast Asia, Western and Central Africa, aiming to increase awareness of forest global forest resources assessment reporting process and its linkages to other reporting processes. And to strengthen information exchange between the focal points may lead the ones for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The project also supported Latin America and the Caribbean National Forest Inventory Network and the publication showcase here evidences the advantage of regional networks. 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean collaborated to produce for the first time this book, harmonizing the elements of the national forest inventory. Regional consistency in data collection and analysis results in reliable and comparable data and improves not only regional but national and international data reporting. Focusing also on the national level. The publication provides insight into the experiences with pilot countries aiming to enhance their national forest monitoring system and we will hear from Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, Guatemala, Honduras, Laos, Thailand, and Uganda. Getting ready to collect and apply all the recommendations and lesson learned gathered during the project's implementation, we will keep enhancing accessibility and usability of global forest related data, developing institutional and technical capacities, sharing knowledge and cementing networks with the optic to contribute to the implementation of the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement. I encourage all of you to take a more in depth look at this publication and to share it with your networks. And I urge you all to engage others in efforts to increase open and transparent data, particularly women and youth people who represent an untapped vein of potential and who will be vital in building a peaceful and better tomorrow. Thank you very much for your attention. Wonderful. Thank you very much, Rocio, that you managed to deliver this presentation despite the connectivity issues that's a challenge we're simply facing in this period. Okay, so now it's time for our panel discussion. So we are going to hear from climate and forestry experts from Uganda, Thailand, Côte d'Ivoire, and Guatemala, who are going to share their experience on the actions that have been taken by their countries to improve their reporting over time. We also have the opportunity to discuss with experts from the Jeff and the UNFCC secretariat. So as we go along, I will be introducing each panelist. So the four countries we have with us today are of course parties to the Paris Agreement, and they have experience under measuring reporting and verification, which they are going to share with us. And this will be interesting to hear about the diverse experience in these four countries and how forest monitoring contributes and has contributed to the reporting on forest climate action. Thank you very much for being with us today. So this discussion will take 30 minutes, and again, please go ahead and pop your questions into the Q&A, and we'll either respond them in written or live. So first I have one question, which I will ask one by one to all the countries here present with us today. Of course, it's a great thing to have better data on forest to have more transparency and a better understanding of how forests can contribute to climate action. But in practical terms, how does your country benefit from the better data? We first invite Mr. Bob Kazungo from Uganda to answer this question. So Bob is a senior forest officer working on monitoring and assessment at the Ministry of Water and Environment of Uganda. He's a forest policy specialist and a climate change professional, and he coordinates the National Forest Monitoring System of Uganda. Bob, great to have you. So how does Uganda benefit from the better data? Over to you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Just very quickly, fast to appreciate our invitation to participate in this webinar. That's very, very important. Very quickly, Uganda successfully completed its red plus readiness phase, and with all the required elements that include the frail, the strategy and action plan. The National Forest Monitoring System and all the other supportive frameworks like the beneficiary and arrangement, the feedback, previous reduced mechanisms. So all those are in place and very interestingly also Uganda was on a voluntary basis, the first country, you know, through technical annex to the BUR to submit results for red plus in April 2020. And we'll call that during the technical assessment by UNFCCC team of experts. It was appreciated that beta data, which means the accurate data and data that is showing consistency in the application of methodologies is fundamental in participating in results. For example, but also in increasing confidence, not only in the results, but also in the engagement of partners who are interested in engaging with the country during the results based payments phase. So working towards better data is key to have confidence to share data. And of course, enhance the transparency requirements for that data. As we see under the ETF of the Paris argument. And very important also capacity building of the technical teams in the country is undertaken when we demonstrate that I need to have beta data. So that is how crucial it is for a country to look out for beta data for his forest data. Briefly, thank you. Wonderful. Thank you very much Bob. That's fascinating to hear. So data paving the way to results based payments. That's obviously a good motivation. Right. So let me turn now to my second panelist, which is Mr. some yard signing from Thailand. We are just retired from the Department of National Parks wildlife and plan conservation, where he was head of the forest inventory and assessment division since 2016. He is a forest inventory expert and focal point coordinator of sustainable forest trade in the lower Mekong region project. Welcome. So how does Thailand benefit from the better data. Yes, yes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening from Thailand for everyone's. First of all, I'd like to introduce my country before Thailand at approximately 50, 51.3 million hectares and for 32 years for less. The majority of Thailand for less are concerned for less. Maybe estimate approximately 64%. And before the submit of less, of less hard for a different emission level, Thailand for less the sector was not included. My contribution due to the lack of data. And after that, Thailand collected data for a long time for a long time about the focus, but we don't focus in carbon. We focus in biodiversity and carbon stock of wood. But after the Thailand, collect, collect data from national forest inventory, we call on type form. We have from ITTO to interview. Type forms in the 20s. The primary focus of type form is to inform in forest stock and biodiversity. And since the first second is heavily focused on concern for less. For less area is monitored since 1973 for Thailand. When it started to meet at 41%. For a cover has decreased to 25% in 1998, but before and have been increasing again. More recently for less monitoring are improved with remote sensing analysis. By improving in its national for a monitoring system and reporting to UNFCCCC Thailand benefit from a better understanding of how for less contribute to climate action. The last FIL and FIL submission confirm your report that the forest sector had been a sink of carbon at least in 20s. With the new and more accurate data. Thailand is now aiming at ending the forest sector into the NDC in the future and emphasize the law of forest as a sink of carbon and send up to MSF forest protection policy. With the better data Thailand can move can more accuracy understand the contribution of forest to Thailand mitigation target. And more transparency that are also held to formulate policy and measure to list Thailand objective of 45% 40% forest cover in the future. That's about the benefit from the data. Thank you very much. Very interesting. So, if I understood correctly the data you collected actually allowed you to formulate an NDC target. That's, that's wonderful that shows the very importance of collecting all this data. Yes. Okay. So let me with that let me move over to the, the next panelist. And so we have with us also Mr. Eric Conan from Cote d'Ivoire. So, Eric is the head of the MRV unit at red plus permanent executive secretariat. Eric is a forest engineer specialized in remote sensing and GIS beyond remote sensing he is a specialist in red plus MRV and greenhouse gas inventory for the forestry and other land user sector. Now Eric, how does Cote d'Ivoire benefit from better data over to you. Thank you very much. Maria K. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to take the floor. Cote d'Ivoire is a country in Western Africa. There has been quite a lot of deforestation in our country. In recent decades we have an economy based heavily on agriculture. And there's a lot of speculation in the cocoa industry as well. And improving the transparency and quality of forest data has contributed enormously to climate action in Cote d'Ivoire. This is a country of robust data, primarily on the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and on forest dynamics has provided decision makers with concrete information on forest resources. This information is accessible via the geo portal of the National Forest Monitoring System. The system was developed to improve visibility and access to forest data in Cote d'Ivoire. This was used for the production of technical reports in the framework of red plus. And this system was also developed for the development of policy and strategy documents. The policy and strategy documents include the National Red Class Strategy, the strategy for the preservation, rehabilitation and extension of forests, and the policy for the preservation, rehabilitation and extension of forests. In addition to all of this, the availability of this data has enabled our country to improve its system for monitoring progress in the fight against climate change. And particularly through the MRV system. This has enabled countries to harmonize data between the different technical reference reports, the forest baseline national communications, biennial updated reports, and it's also helped us to have comparable elements of data that we can use in our system. Thank you. Thank you very much. I hope everybody found the interpretation for following the seminar in English. So, wonderful is that data on drivers of the first station and degradation is being used to formulate strategies and policies that's a wonderful to see that that data is being used. With that, I'm moving to my fourth or fourth panelist of today. And again, if you want interpretation in English you can use you can click on the globe down. So our fourth panelist is Mr. Martin Gabriel Vasquez from Guatemala. So Martin is deputy manager of the National Institute of Forests in Guatemala. He's a forest engineer by formation and before taking up his current function as deputy manager. He was director of forest industry and trade and director of sustainable forest management, always with the National Institute of Forest. Thank you very much for inviting us. It's a pleasure for us as Guatemala to to share with you the benefits that we have seen. Firstly, the data that we have allows us to develop better policies and measures in search of both national and international progress in forestry. And it also allows us to assess the contribution of our forests in the framework of the climate change sphere. What we need is a base of data which helps us to generate information so that we can have further research and this research needs to take into account various aspects. We do have our own platform in Guatemala. This is called Sifqua. The data generated continues to grow and this data is starting to become accessible to the public. And this allows everyone to benefit from the data that we have been able to accumulate. I can even share the link in the chat if you like so that you can see all of this information that is available. This is one of the best elements that demonstrates the benefits that we have seen in our country because we have a lot of data and we are putting this data out there so that the public can access all of this important information. Stakeholders to access the data for different purposes. That sounds wonderful. Thank you very much. So we're moving on with our panel discussion and let us go back to Uganda. So Bob, you said Uganda is the first African country to submit for plus results. And it's also the first tropical country to make available its national forest inventory through Fowles food and agriculture micro data catalog. Now, can you tell us was it difficult to achieve consensus on making the data available and is there already a positive impact for reporting and sharing this data. Thank you very much. What a great opportunity to have this kind of conversation. First to mention that data availability and access is always a huge challenge in many countries. Just like it is in Uganda. But we built upon the work on relationships that we've been having since the time when we did the national forest inventory the latest 2019. We did the biomass assessments so the relationships and that work that we did plus the lessons we learned there. We enabled us actually to know how to access data from different players and making the data available to the firm catalog I must confess that it took us some time yes, but it was not as difficult, because the only thing we needed to do as a country was to agree and take care of what we call the confidentiality elements pertaining to having data shared out there and to what use is it going to be put. So this kind of aspect ushered us into the agent need to concretize and initiate the preparation of the data sharing protocol and this was also part of the CBIT project work that we initiated. We hope of course to have this data sharing protocol completed this year 2022. And I must confess also that yes many partners have provided us feedback to my ministry of what an environment appreciating, especially the partners who are involved in carbon project development. Most of whom are civil society organizations and other agencies in the country, and they have actually appreciated our being, you know, among the first countries to share this data freely with the firm catalog because it's demonstration that our data is better data, has the accuracy and consistency elements taken care of. So to me I think it's, it is already impacting on how the partners in Uganda and even the people who want to finance carbon project development development others have looked at Uganda. And I must say that we've received many requests, including our participation in the leaf coalition. And some of you could be, you know, conversant about the leaf coalition and add developments in carbon transactions that I'm going, going on across the globe, especially with the post COP26 and conversations about article 6.2 and article 6.4 and the others so we have already impacted on many people with being the first country to share this information it raises confidence in our data. Thank you very much. Wonderful. Thank you very much Bob, we will definitely keep looking at Uganda. And yes, these are issues that that are shared in all all countries right so it's great to to learn from one another. So let me pose my second question, and moving for this one to Cote d'Ivoire. So, Eric Cote d'Ivoire has been involved in red plus for many years now. And as you said just now it has a very particular context where Kakao can both be a driver of the first station or a climate smart contribution to landscape restoration. So you have an active private sector with some zero different station claims, and you participate in the carbon fund. You also report to UNFCCC. Now, the question that then arises is it challenging to reconcile the data requirements and needs from these different actors. Eric. Merci Marie. So, to say that Cote d'Ivoire has been a member of the red plus mechanism since 2011. And the preparation phase to implement the red plus mechanism started in 2014. The study on the drivers of deforestation identified agriculture mainly cocoa was the biggest driver of deforestation in Cote d'Ivoire. And as a result, different strategies for reducing deforestation and forest rehabilitation have identified the introduction of trees into the agricultural landscape through the practice of agroforestry as an element to improve forest carbon storage. To this end, several initiatives are underway at the national level, and they incorporate various elements. These elements include the cocoa and forests initiative, the forest investment project, and the greenhouse gas emissions reduction program around the Thai national park. This is the biggest forest area in Cote d'Ivoire. This is also recognized by UNESCO. The improved transparency of forest data has made it possible to harmonize data in order to meet the challenges of meeting the often different and disparate requirements of data stakeholders. We put in place a platform which brings together all stakeholders. This platform first made it possible to raise awareness amongst stakeholders and to give stakeholders access to available data. And then it allowed us to identify their data needs in order to then enable them to plan their production with the aim of reducing wastage of time and resources that could be caused by the duplication of existing data. Thank you very much. So my next question will be for Mr. Somya. So Thailand is one of the few countries with multiple forest inventories, and more recently the country has built its capacities on data analysis. Can you tell us more about how Thailand's experience in data collection and analysis will enhance your national forest monitoring system? Yes, thank you. For this question, I would like to answer you about the, for the first one Thailand received technical training and data analysis. It's helpful to improve reporting, and climate action and for domestic proposed data will stop and they will see monitoring. For the second one is also held to chip from the original popularity, proprietary software. That's what decide for the first inventory cycle to open source solution like to integrate a useful for the inventory variable with new variable like carbon. And the third one, the inventory port location is also being revised to include port from both conservation, conserved and reserve forest to make result more representative at the national level. And Thailand puts more effort to relocate port in order to encourage forest dynamics in the future for the data analysis. And Thailand is also received support on remote sensing data analysis for detecting forest chain and with FAO level macro monitoring project is working on nearly a time forest monitoring. All of these to help monitoring forest chain and improve understanding of carbon, dynamic and reporting climate action, while also helping with more traditional use of forest monitoring for wood stock and biodiversity also. That is about the discussion. Thank you. Thank you very much. Very very interesting. Okay, now let's move on to the next question. So the next question is what for Guatemala for Martin. So Guatemala is a multicultural country with at least 23 ethnic groups. And just told us that your country has a wide and strong experience in forest monitoring, and that this this data also helps to to formulate your national policies related to climate action and forest restoration and conservation. The question we now have is, how are you integrating local communities in the institutionalization process of forest monitoring in Guatemala. Thank you. Thank you once again. That's right. We have 23 ethnic groups in Guatemala. This is a challenge, because this represents 23 languages and cultures in our country. But I think this has been quite an enriching experience for us. We have good communication with the various ethnic groups. In Guatemala, this has allowed us to not only gather all of the information that exists in these various areas around the country. This allows us to work hand in hand with communities. This is very important for us. It helps us to gather information. It helps us to raise awareness in local communities as to why we're actually gathering all of this data and information. We have incorporated very important things like for example the Mayan calendar and something else which is very important I think as an anecdote, which was very telling for us when it comes to the collaboration that we have with ethnic groups. We had an experience of a situation where we had a forestry technician who was working in the field and she was in quite a remote and difficult area to access. She injured her knee and suffered hypothermia while she was working and the local community members helped her to come down from the mountain and receive medical attention. I think this is an example of the solidarity that characterizes the Guatemalan communities. Some experiences and also great for countries among each other to hear these experiences. But now we want to pass on to our next panelists. So also with us today is Ms. Namrata Patodia Rastogi from the Jeff Secretariat. So Namrata supports the Jeff portfolio for the CIBIT. She provides technical advice related to CIBIT and supports operational and technical aspects related to the CIBIT portfolio, working with Jeff agencies to ensure delivery of impactful projects with CIBIT. So Namrata, first of all, welcome. The CIBIT trust fund under the global environment facility was created at the request of parties to help strengthen capacities of developing countries to meet the enhanced transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement. Concerning CIBIT lessons learned from the AFOLU sector, what are the most common capacity building needs identified in CIBIT country projects? Great. Thank you so much, Maria K. And thank you to FAO for inviting me to speak here. It's exciting and it's been really interesting to hear from previous speakers, especially the country counterparts and hearing their experiences, especially some of them are the CIBIT national projects that I will be touching on in a few minutes. I have a couple of slides, which I thought might be helpful to anchor the discussion, and then I will just go quickly into the question that Maria K. posed. I thought it would be important for us to just remind ourselves of what the capacity building initiative for transparency or CIBIT is. As mentioned by Maria K., it was established at the request of parties to strengthen the institutional and technical capacities of developing countries specifically to meet the Article 13 enhanced transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement. The CIBIT has three specific objectives. The first is to strengthen national institutions in relation to the transparency related activities. The second is to provide relevant tools, training and assistance to meet the requirements of the Article 13. And the third is to assist in the improvement of transparency over time. And I think some of the interventions that we've heard before us, as well as from FAO from Rocio, shows how several of the CIBIT projects actually align very well with these objectives. A quick snapshot of the portfolio. Since 2016, we've had about 81 projects in the portfolio. 75 of them are national and just as I mentioned Uganda, Guatemala, Cote d'Ivoire, as well as Thailand have CIBIT projects. So those are included in those 75 national projects. There are five global projects of which there are two FAO global projects, the CIBIT forest and CIBIT AFOLU, which we have been talking about here. And then one regional project. There's a total of about $130.8 million in resources allocated. And most of these CIBIT projects I should mention are about $1.2 to $1.3 million. These are some of the size projects in Jeff language. We have good regional diversity, as you can see we have several projects over 30 or 30 projects from Africa. Good representation from the Latin American and Caribbean, as well as Asia and ECA. I must note here that we have several projects from LDCs and SIDS. And even though this is related to the enhanced transparency framework which provides LDCs and SIDS with the flexibility provisions, we find a great engagement from these countries in terms of CIBIT projects. So I do want to highlight this here. The next point I want to make here which I will again go into in my next slide is the AFOLU sector. It is a sector that is specifically addressed within the CIBIT portfolio about 37% of our projects. And I do want to mention to our participants here that as Jeff goes into its eighth replenishment period we will continue to provide support to developing countries for the enhanced transparency framework through CIBIT. To ensure that countries are able to report back through the biennial transparency report, the first of which are due in 2024 which we heard previously from our speakers. The Jeff along with CIBIT also provides support through its enabling activities, the national communications, the biennial update reports, and we've also have a modality now open for biennial transparency reports. So we invite countries I think several of you are very familiar with these but I thought it would be important to just highlight this. So now going into the specific question that Marieke posed for me in terms of capacity needs and I have to say that my job has become a lot easier because several of the countries have talked about these challenges and how they've overcome that, and provided sort of their perspectives on these challenges. I am looking at this from a portfolio perspective so looking at the AFOLU projects and those that address AFOLU. So there are some projects within the CIBIT portfolio that are specifically only for the AFOLU sector some that are broader but address AFOLU as well. And as I mentioned before there are about 37% of projects in the CIBIT portfolio that are specifically addressing AFOLU. And as we see and sit specifically that number goes up to about 41 or 42%. So there's a clear need for for building capacities in the transparency sector there's absolutely no doubt about that. The first challenge that I want to highlight here and I think this has been mentioned by some of my colleagues is the need for building robust institutional arrangements and coordination mechanisms. There are a lot of frameworks there there's no institutionalizing of transparency and it tends to happen in a project based or an ad hoc manner so there's a lack of MOUs or there's a lack of focal points or established systems and processes. In the AFOLU sector we find that coordination is required not only among the sectors agriculture and forestry, but also the subsectoral level, and then at the various levels of national subnational local we heard from Agwate Malin counterpart about how you need to engage communities and bring communities together and coordinate amongst them. So I think I want to sort of highlight this point because this is very particular to the AFOLU sector where you do find that because of the rural and the remote nature of the sector data collection and reporting can be extremely challenging for some of the higher tier methodologies, you need continuous reporting or a technical sophistication that might not be available in these communities and capacities need to be built accordingly. What we want to make within this is the lack of data available it is just not data available when I look at some of the projects that come through this in the previous national communications or the GIG inventories as mentioned of data in the energy sector, but there's no data from the AFOLU sector we see that sometimes or if data is available it's extremely weak and not comprehensive enough. Sometimes the data challenge is that it is in hard copy format, and the need is to digitize it. There's a lack of data archiving IT systems understanding how some of this will be used. First challenge the second challenge and I can't emphasize this enough and I'm sure my country counterparts will agree with me is the lack of capacities, the technical capacities AFOLU is a technically complex sector, understanding the concepts and methodologies of emissions, undertaking country, country emission factors uncertainty analysis, using the GIS tools and the geo referencing tools and some of the tools that FAO has but which is extremely, it was really heartening to hear, you know, a comprehensive sort of overview from the COCO on the seabed forest and what it's doing in terms of training because that's what is needed really, and sometimes it's needed on the ground, sometimes a virtual format works and this is just an extremely complex sector and it's not about just providing a one time training. The process is continuous and the capacities need to be retained. I think another aspect in the technical capacities is not just from the AFOLU sector perspective but also for countries, practitioners, officials, policymakers to understand what the ETF what is the enhanced transparency framework why is it important, how does that connect to the Paris agreement, and then what are the elements what are the, what are the more ambitious elements so we see that some countries might have a national forest monitoring system, but is it still not able to meet the ETF requirements that are required. And then the third point which I, which was really nice for me to hear from several of our country colleagues on how they are using the data already to make decisions. Usually in the seabed portfolio we do find that we are building the capacities of countries to enable this to build. I think one colleague I can't remember which country it was just mentioned about developing an open sort of data system or a web portal which would allow data to be publicly for public consumption. I think that's really important and seabed projects came to to build on and three other projects I'm almost done Maria give me one more minute. And three, three other points that I want to just mention here is that some of the capacity needs is to build on existing initiatives like red plus. It's important to align to NDCs and specifically for the AFOLU sector incorporating the gender elements. So that's from my and thank you so much and I appreciate the extra few minutes thank you. Wonderful. Thank you very much. So, let me go straight to the introduction of the of our last but not least final panelists, because we're running a little bit over time. So today with us also is miss any one from the UNFCCC Secretariat. So yet me is a program officer in the transparency framework sub program of the mitigation data and analysis program at the UNFCCC. She works on issues related to land use land use change and forestry, and climate change in the secretariat, and in particular red plus and MRV. So any developing countries are making great progress on an MRV of anthropogenic forest related emissions and removals. Can you summarize what new reporting requirements are coming at countries when they're moving towards the enhanced transparency framework. Thank you, Marika. First of all, good morning. Good afternoon or good evening to colleagues who are following this around the world. Good afternoon to colleagues in Rome, and thank you very much for inviting me and the UNFCCC to be part of this panel as part of the final webinar. But you know, most of all, after listening to the various panel members, I must say that it's a breath of fresh air to hear the experiences being shared by our colleagues from the various countries on the panel and the exciting things they're doing as they prepare to meet the transparency framework of the Paris Agreement. So it's really great to hear that countries developing countries are moving forward, and I think the e-learning module that has been developed by FAO on how the importance of forest data, importance of transparent forest data will help countries go towards in fulfilling some of the objectives of the enhanced transparency framework. I will not elaborate on what the transparency framework is about. I think that has been said, and only to build on some of the things that the entry panelists have mentioned, as well as Namrata, thank you for summarizing some of the capacity building needs. I can only concur. Those needs are very important. What are the new elements? I think we've heard that the ETF, enhanced transparency framework, builds on the existing reporting and review processes of the convention. But yet, there are a few new elements that countries would have to meet as they report under the Paris Agreement. They will be reporting in the form of a by email transparency report, and all parties will be making this report called the BTR, and in it, all parties will be providing information and data on their greenhouse gas emissions and removals. The other thing that they need to report on is on how they are tracking progress in implementing and achieving their NDCs, their national determined contribution. They would have also to cover other information and data that would be related to climate change impacts and adaptation and what are the information that relate to their financial technology capacity building needs and particularly for developing countries and the support that developed countries are providing. So, as you know that in Glasgow at COP26 last year, that the COP finalized the provisions, the guidance for operationalizing these modalities that were agreed that guides the reporting under the ETF of the Paris Agreement. So, we know what is the benefit of the need for transparency and data and information, particularly for the forest sector we've already heard some of the examples provided by our colleagues that, you know, it helps. It helps them identify drivers of deforestation, when you would have transparent data that would go into part of your developing your national strategy, and the need for data platforms and managing such data. It not only leads to transparency but I think it is also being transparent to all stakeholders who are involved and part of good communication I think God tomorrow summarized it very well on how they are getting their stakeholders involved. These are some of the benefits that a transparent data and information, which includes the forest sector, leads to better national planning, helping countries develop their plans and strategies in particular in how they would meet their nationally determined contribution. And such transparent data and information will also help countries identify what their capacity building needs are and facilitate them on assessing support for these capacity building needs. So, in short, I would say transparent data would help meet country help countries to meet their commitments to on what they identified for the NDCs, and it also helps build confidence and trust among countries of their climate actions by having transparent data and information, which we also heard that is important to have a system where such data and information will be managed and coordinated and being accessible by all the relevant stakeholders in the country. On the capacity building needs, I think a number of summarized it very well. There was a CGE study done about two, three years back and the elements that were identified for CBIT projects, I think it was also identified by the CGE in their study of capacity building needs which apply to the blue or red plus sectors. So, I guess in a way that sort of summarizes what I would like to say in answering in terms of the new elements that countries have to report and robust institutional arrangement. It may not be new, new, but you would definitely need that. And I think we've heard those examples by our panelists and Namrata has also emphasized on that fact that the very importance of robust institutional arrangement. And so I can only end by saying, you know, is for countries to start now and take action already now to ensure that you would be ready when the time comes for reporting under the Paris Agreement under the ETF and preparing for your a biennial transparency report. Thank you, Marika. Wonderful. Thank you very much, Yeni. So, unfortunately, we've run a little bit over with time. So the Q&A, the live Q&A will be somewhat shorter. But as you can see, a lot of questions have already been answered in Britain. Also, we will answer all the questions in Britain that will become online later. So even if we don't manage right now, an answer will be coming. So let me just try and pick one question. So there were many questions for Guatemala, which Martir already answered in Britain. I have a question here for Uganda. So, Bob, the question here is, what kind of institutional arrangements did FAO put in place in Uganda to promote the data dissemination? It's a question from Kleto. Thank you very much. It's a great question indeed, I must say. Uganda went through a very rigorous process to, you know, implement a project that we named institutionalization of the national forest monitoring system. The name of that project tells it all, what is contained in that report. And in that report, we identified the institutions that are relevant for data, both collections. Here are taking aspects related to data and also coordination functions for data management in the country. And the institutions, I could just mention very quickly here, include the Ministry of Water and Environment, which is doing the coordination function, the National Forest Authority, which is doing most of the technical elements, data collection analysis, and the Climate Change Department, which has a function to report to the UNFCCC for the GHGI, and you know very well that their follow contributes to the GHGI reporting. We have the local governments, these are the concentrated or the congested structures in across the country. We have administrative structures across the country. We also participate in data collection. We have the private sector, which provides information. It has we have the robust private sector in the country, which has undertaken commercial tree growing. We have, I mean, provides data to the system, and all these institutions have been brought on the same table to have a conversation on how do we insert a data sharing protocol and we still have some work to do to complete that data sharing protocol. So, we have institutionalized the National Forest Monitoring System and its functionality. Thank you very much. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you for your question. The report is available. I asked Plato for easy mail address so that I can, you know, I can share that report immediately. Just waiting. Thank you. Perfect. Yeah, I'm sure we will make that connection. Okay, wonderful. There are so many other questions. It's really hard to select some. Yeah, I see Benin also interested in learning from Cote d'Ivoire. Wonderful. Let me see if I can take another question here. Maybe I would pose one live to Guatemala as they had a lot of questions. So I have here a question, which is actually to all countries from Pedro Montero. Apart from the opportunities and tools, could any of the panelists elaborate on eventual overarching challenges identified during the process in different countries? Martín, do you want to respond to that question? Yes. Apart from the opportunities and tools, could any of the panelists elaborate on eventual overarching challenges identified during the process in different countries? Thank you. I think that some of the general challenges include issues relating to technology. There are many forms of technology available for the forestry sector. It's really technology that is just starting. We're starting to adopt it and adapt it. We are doing this now and it is one of the serious challenges. And then we also have the issue of achieving greater participation with the communities and particularly among women in the forestry sector. I believe that these are issues which are incredibly important and we are addressing them with an agenda strategy with participation not only within our institution, but also with all of the other national services that we work with. And we try to stress the importance of this and we are stressing it across the board in several different areas. The participation of women and communities is incredibly important. We move on in our schedule and we will continue again going in writing with the question, but we also do not want to miss our last speaker, of course. So with us today is also Mr. Anzi Pekarinen, who will give us a few closing remarks. So Anzi is a team leader of the Global Forest Resources Assessment Team. Thank you for being with us, Anzi, and over to you. Thank you, Marike. And dear colleagues, let me start by thanking you all for having been here with us today and for the rich discussion that we have had. A special thanks of course go to our speakers who have shared their insights on the ongoing efforts and future needs to improve the transparency of forest related data and information to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement. But let me just try to summarize the session we just had. We started with the technical program with Rosia's overview of the novel learning resources and activities developed during the CBIT Forest Project. Let me just remind you that these materials will continue to be available online for the foreseeable future. We hope that you will find them useful and can help us to share them through your own professional networks. After Rosia, we have heard from our colleagues from countries how the CBIT pilot have worked to increase the transparency of national forest data. In Uganda, transparency has been increased by sharing data across several forums, and that has paved the road for results-based payments. Uganda has also made excellent progress by sharing their NFI data through the FAO microdata catalog. Thailand has improved the statistical analysis and quality of the data and statistics, including using remote sensing to better inform the formulation of the NDCs and achieving the national policy objectives. In Côte d'Ivoire, the better data has provided accessible and concrete information on forest resources and their changes, including on drivers of deep forest days. The build system also supports development of policy and strategy documents, and great progress has been made in improving the transparency of forest data, harmonizing them, and reconciling the data requirements and needs from different actors. Also, in Guatemala, progress has been made in producing and sharing better data, which are now becoming accessible also to the general public. Good progress has also been made in gathering information from different parts of the country through collaboration and involvement of the 23, if I recall right, local communities in forest monitoring process. Many thanks to Mr. Kazungu, Mr. Saanjin, Mr. Konan and Mr. Vasquez for having shared these insights with us today. In addition to these encouraging country examples, we have also learned from Ms. Namrata Patogia-Rastocci about the chef's impressive CBIT portfolio and specific capacity building needs in the technically complex African sub-forestry and other land use sector. The lack of data, technical capacity and coordination clearly remain issues that we need to continue to address. And finally, we saw the insights of Ms. Jenny Wong from the UNFCCC on the new reporting requirements for countries moving to enhance transparency framework under the Paris Agreement. We also heard how transparent data helps countries to meet their NDCs and leads to better identification of capacity building needs and assessing the support needed. Many thanks Namrata and Jenny for having shared your valuable knowledge and experiences on these matters. At FAO, we stand ready to apply the recommendations and lessons learned from this project to further contribute to the improvement of forest data transparency and sustainability at both national and global levels. As my colleague Julian Fox said earlier, during the past years we have strengthened our support to national forest monitoring efforts around the world. As we are building national forest monitoring systems and the data they produce are other cornerstones of reliable, credible and transparent reporting for national and international reporting needs. We will also continue our work on improving the quality, accessibility and transparency of the global data on forest resources as we are now moving towards the next global forest resources assessment for 2025, as we call it. At this very moment, we are preparing a proposal for the scope of the next assessment. And while continuing our efforts to further reduce the reporting burden, we are also working on a more flexible reporting process. That will allow more frequent voluntary updates of key forest related indicators as a response to the evolving information needs of the international policy arena, the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and forthcoming post 2020 biodiversity framework, among others. We are also planning to further strengthen our collaboration with other forest related reporting processes to ensure better alignment and information exchange among the national focal points. And finally we will continue the work on the open access online global forest resources assessment platform to facilitate the country reporting process and to make it easier for the fra national correspondence to visualize and use different sources of information. This will help to better understand inconsistencies in different data sets, explaining those differences in an explicit way and harmonizing the data reported to different processes and conventions. Colleagues, before closing, I would like to use this opportunity to thank Rosio and our colleagues at the FAE Learning Academy for having organized the event. Marike for the excellent moderation and the global environment facility for the financial support that helped us to implement all these presented activities. I hope today's discussions have inspired us all to take further steps towards transparent production and dissemination of forest related data. Climate change is a real threat to human well being and the health of the planet, and halting deforestation and reducing forest and land degradation are among the best nature based solutions to the climate crisis. With better and transparent data on forests, we can make better decisions, decisions that will help us to conserve and use our forests in a way that secures sustainable future for us and for the planet. Thank you all, stay safe and have a great rest of the day. Wonderful. Thank you very much, Nancy, for those wonderful closing remarks. Maybe just as a very last, every panelist can turn on their camera. We can make a little photo of all panelists together and thank you everybody again for joining today from your different time zones and the recordings will be made available and also the questions will be answered and will be published online as well. Thank you very much. Do we have everybody. Okay, I hope our technical colleagues managed to take a photo. colleague from meeting service. Can you please put us in gallery view so that we can take a picture. Thank you. Okay, great. Okay, wonderful. Many thanks and have a wonderful day everybody. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye.