 Welcome everybody to the official launch of the e-learning course on the transparency framework for forestry under the PERI agreement. This e-learning course is actually the result of a collaborative effort involving the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, the Global Environment Fund, and the FAO e-learning academy. Let me start by introducing myself. I'm Christina Petraki and I head the FAO e-learning academy. Let me just say a few words on what the academy does. We basically offer over 350 multi-lingual e-learning courses which are offered free of charge as a global public good and this new course is part of the offerings. I would like to also mention that the FAO e-learning academy regularly organizes international technical webinars with our partners at Greenham and with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Pacific and that as well as e-learning courses and other capacity development interventions. What I wanted to mention is that in all our initiatives, activities, e-learning courses, MOOCs, blended learning programs, there is one common thread which is sustainability and this course also on the transparency framework on forestry contributes also to sustainability and to a better management of data and information related to forestry. So I would like to now give the floor to our moderator today who is Khalil Welji and today we have a very interesting agenda with a number of experts from both our partners that have contributed to the course. So Khalil, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Christina. I hope everyone can hear me properly. Good afternoon, good morning, good evening. Thank you all for joining us. It is really fantastic to see over 200 participants here. It's tremendous and I think it just shows the excitement around the topic that we're discussing today. We've brought together an impressive and broad group of speakers to discuss open and transparent forest data, setting the course for a green future under the Paris Agreement. So today in this technical webinar through both presentations and through a moderated dialogue we will try to unpack and cover a range of topics. We want to start by discussing the importance of the enhanced transparency framework under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement and to do this we are really delighted to be joined by Dr. Donald Cooper and Ms. Lisa Hanley from the UNFCCC. Following the first presentation we want to provide an overview and introduce the capacity building initiative for transparency, a program under the Global Environment Facility. And for that we have been joined by another two colleagues, Ms. Milena Gonzalez and Mr. Pascal Martinez. And finally to round out the group presentations we would like to focus on the CIPET, the CBIT Forest Global Project, and to help us officially launch the three brand new e-learning modules we are delighted to be joined by Ms. Mette Wilkie and Ms. Rocio Condor. Following the presentations we will host a moderated dialogue and that's where you guys come in. We will take questions from the floor. Before I jump in to the actual content though let me start by introducing myself. My name is Khalil Walji. I work with the National Forest Monitoring Team here at FAO and I'll be your moderator, your asker of questions, and generally your company for today's session. I am like perhaps some of you a non-expert on most of these topics but I hope that through our dialogue we can uncover and further understand some of these themes that are being brought forward by our esteemed colleagues. But I also want to take an opportunity to recognize all of you, our audience. With over 260 as of right now speakers we're bound to be coming from a really broad diversity and mix of backgrounds. Some of you may be experts and joining us from country offices as I've already seen by the chat. And some of you might be more generally interested in forests and their contribution to the Paris Agreement. And we hope that many of you are younger colleagues like myself considered youth. And it just so happens that today also is World Youth Skills Day which is a great reminder that we must focus on building capacity at all levels and to ensure that everyone has the tools and is unable to take climate action. Something that we're needed more now more than ever. Now speaking of experience and expertise given the reality of the past three to four months in Zoom calls we presume that many of you are well versed in Zoom etiquette but just a very quick refresher. During the presentations please place any questions that you have into the Q&A box. If there is a question that's been posed that you were also thinking about please utilize the upvote function and this will really bring the most important questions to the top of the the aisle. We're joined today in moderation by my colleague Emily Donegan from FAO and she'll be helping us select the questions for the panel. So I hope that gives a very clear overview of how we'll spend the next 1.4 of hours together and how we can interact through the Zoom platform. So without delaying any further I'd like to welcome our first group of speakers from the UNFCCC. We'll be hearing first from Dr. Donald Cooper who serves as the Director of the Transparency Division at the UNFCCC which supports the intergovernmental processes related to measurement reporting and verification under Kyoto as well as the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris Agreement. Dr. Cooper has a career filled with extensive experience supporting and leading projects and programs related to environmental health and science as well as working at high levels of government with such a vast knowledge and experience we look forward to his remarks. And following Dr. Cooper we will also hear from Ms. Lisa Hanley who currently leads the newly established enhanced transparency framework and coordination unit also under the Transparency Division of the UNFCCC. She coordinates and facilitates the secretariat wide efforts on development and implementation under the new ETF of the Paris Agreement and has over 20 years of experience working at the national and international level of reporting reviewing activities related to greenhouse gas inventories amongst many more. That's a mouthful my apologies but Donald and Lisa we greatly appreciate you joining us today and I turn the floor to you. Thank you very much. First of all I have to apologize. Lisa is going to deal with the UNFCCC contribution and just crashing the party. I was discussing this matter with Patricia Espinosa a couple of weeks ago she's the Executive Secretary of the Climate Change Secretariat and we could not let the opportunity go by without expressing our admiration and gratitude to FAO for the whole array of leadership roles it has taken. It is quite extraordinary that you are an example to everyone about taking the charge that the countries have given you and running with it. We at the UNFCCC are happy to be your number two on any occasion to do whatever it is to help you enhance whatever actions you wish to take. The work that you are doing now builds not only specific capacity but general capacity in one of the most challenging and potentially rewarding areas dealing with forests. You are building the ability to ensure that all countries are contributing in all sectors. It is difficult to address the forestry sector and with your help countries are able to do that. Well I only had a minute so it was always going to be limited what I could tell you but we are extraordinarily impressed pleased. I wish to thank you and encourage you to continue doing what you are doing and more. So to address the enhanced transparency framework component I now hand over to Lisa. Lisa. Thank you Don and good morning good afternoon and good evening to everyone and I would just like to echo Don's comments and thank FAO for the work that has gone into this this effort today. It's been a great collaboration and we look forward to many more such collaborations in the coming years. Forestry is a complicated sector and so it's it's great that the work is starting and it's starting now and we look forward to working with you. I only have 13 minutes left in my presentation so I know that we can only do so much in this amount of time and I can't seem to fast forward. There we go. We can only do so much for the about the enhanced transparency framework but I hope we can provide you some insight today and then more importantly to know that you can come to us if there are questions going forward and talk to us. As Don said we hope that we are the best number two around to help you in your efforts and because there is a short amount of time I thought we could start with some of the key messages. First the enhanced transparency framework is the foundation of the Paris Agreement. I know that the expertise on this webinar vary and so I think one of the most important things is to understand what is transparency itself in order to first then see what is enhanced under the Paris Agreement and transparency is really about the provision of information on climate action and in doing so you're providing information on greenhouse gas emissions and removals perhaps policies and measures in your country finance technology transfer capacity building needs it's about providing this information in an open manner so that the public others can see what your country is doing. It's transparent information. We'll talk about how that is enhanced under the Paris Agreement. The second key message is that forests play a key role in all aspects of the of the Paris Agreement whether it's in the targets that countries are taking the reporting of emissions and removals from the forestry sector or looking at opportunities to enhance ambition over time and and one of the key messages that I really really liked from the the training course was that a robust national forest management system is fundamental to achieving multiple national goals. From the secretariat we often talk about well how do you meet the reporting requirements under the UNFCCC. What is required to be reported and it's important for transparency to report this information but what's most important is that the data and the systems that you're developing to report information can be used internally. It helps in countries to identify mitigation actions, opportunities for further reductions over time. It's not just about reporting but it's gathering the necessary information and developing the institutions to help you manage a domestic policy and achieve domestic goals. The third key message is that building the skill set now through training such as this program will position you not only to support the current measurement reporting and verification system under the convention but also to the enhanced transparency framework. In terms of the Paris Agreement and the basics it's starting with the the communication of a nationally determined contribution. As many of you know 2020 is a big year where countries are submitting new or updated NDCs and this is really identifying what the country will do to achieve mitigation actions over a certain period of time and as you know, forests can play a key role in this in this component. I think it's risky to say a statistic but I think I saw that around 31 percent of the nationally determined contributions have an element of forestry in them so it's key to this element. After the NDC is communicated countries will identify policies and measures and implement actions to achieve those goals. Meanwhile tracking their progress towards their goals accounting for whether or not they're on track and whether or not over time they've achieved those goals. That information is then submitted in a report and this is where we start the enhanced transparency framework. Every two years beginning at the end of December 2024 at the latest countries will submit a biennial transparency report and this is including information on greenhouse gas emissions and removals. It will include information on the target, tracking progress towards the target, adaptation actions in the country, finance technology transfer, all of that. This is the reporting element. Review teams will then come together and they will assess the reports submitted by countries and to determine whether the country was first meeting the requirements for the reporting but then also importantly helping them to improve over time so if reporting requirements aren't being met these expert review teams will work with the country and really see what are the capacity building needs. After the report is drafted countries will have an opportunity to showcase their actions, showcase what they're doing to achieve their their NDCs through a facilitated multilateral consideration of progress and this is really an opportunity for other countries to ask the party what they've done to to look for perhaps opportunities for further collaboration and to really just have an exchange. Every five years there'll be a global stock take where you're not you're moving on to looking at the all countries and whether all countries are on track to meet the objectives of the Paris agreement. So it's not about well has one country met the requirements but collectively are all countries on a path to meet the objectives of the Paris agreement and here again forestry can be an element of that process as you can look at mitigation options or adaptation options to enhance ambition over time. Based on the outcome of this global stock take this global consideration of information countries will have a sense are we on track or are we not on track and the idea being that if not on track their countries in their next nationally determined contributions would look to enhance ambition. And again this may be a little bit complicated but it's just to give you an idea of what is the enhanced transparency framework and how are we moving from what's happening now to what will happen starting at the latest in 2024. As many of you know there's currently two systems of reporting one for developed countries and one for developing. Every year developed countries submit an annual greenhouse gas inventory every two years they submit a biannual report they every four years submit national communications. Developing countries similarly submit a BUR every two years they submit national communications and then also forest reference levels and red plus results. That information is currently reviewed there are two different tracks one for developed countries now where there's a technical analysis of information focused mostly on enhancing capacity and improving reporting over time and there's a review process for developed countries. And then there's a showcase of facilitative sharing of views or multilateral assessment where there are public opportunities during the COP sessions for countries to engage. So these two track approaches two tracks under the current measurement reporting and verification system are going to combine into one track that is applicable to all countries. So under the Paris agreement under this agreement the enhanced element the enhanced transparency framework is that all countries will submit a greenhouse gas inventory every two years and be required to track progress towards their target. Developed countries will be required to report information on finance technology transfer and capacity building needs or I'm sorry provided to developing countries whereas developing countries will provide information on what their needs are and what capacity building and finance they have received. All countries will then undergo a review process and then all countries will undergo a facilitative multilateral consideration of progress. I think when you look about what's enhanced the requirements for developed countries under the ETF are very similar and there are some differences and their elements around the tracking of progress towards the NDC target that will be new for all countries but there's largely a lot of similarities. For developing countries there are additional reporting requirements new reporting requirements that are going to require capacity building support and I think one of the big elements of the Paris agreement is that there are flexibility provisions embedded in this in the system for those developing countries that need it in light of their capacities and you will find that these flexibility provisions they are associated with things that are new for example the use of the 2006 IPCC guidelines that will be a big area for developing countries and capacity building. Some countries use it already but it will be required under the Paris agreement reporting on projections that's a new area. The tracking of progress for developing countries will be new. The whole review process again it's a very different type of review process under the Paris agreement. It's a very valuable opportunity to enhance reporting over time but it will be new for developing countries and so you will find flexibility provisions there to help in this transition but over time the idea is that we will have improved reporting based on this process and the final point I would make on this slide is that it's important to remember that for developed countries we have had this process for over 20 years and so what it's like now is not what it was like 20 years ago and you'll see the same improvement over time I think under the Paris agreement there will be a lot of learning as as we go. And finally I would just end by saying the technical experts are needed and this is why we think this kind of a course is so valuable providing the background knowledge providing support on forestry because experts are needed whether you're an inventory or a BTR compiler it's important to understand the how forests are related to the enhanced transparency framework or how the enhanced transparency framework is related to the Paris agreement. If you're a reviewer this is an illustration of a review team under an inventory these experts are needed to review the process and it's we probably will need probably about twice as many experts as we currently need and our hope is that after you all as the audience take courses such as these that you will then register and identify ways to become a reviewer under the official UNFCCC process either now or towards the towards the future. Overall anything countries and individuals can do now to be involved in the MRV process is good preparation for the enhanced transparency framework so we look forward to working working with all of you and seeing all of you and one of these pictures in the in the years to come. Thank you. Thank you so much Lisa yeah and thank you so much Donald as well for your opening remarks and for crashing the party we greatly appreciate your presence. Yeah thank you for covering the basics as you put it Lisa in your presentation. I quite like the fifth slide which I think really visualized this transition process that will be happening between now and 2020 and 2024 and some of the implications for the developing and developed countries as well but I think we can dive into that a bit more during the discussion. So for now I think having covered the basics of the convention and understanding how the enhanced transparency framework fits there it's a good moment to transition and explore how these decisions then translate to some action at a national level and at a global level. So to do so we are joined today by two colleagues from the global environment facility Miss Milena Gonzalez who is a climate change specialist in the program's unit of the Jeff. She reviews climate change mitigation project proposals from various countries and works on topics related to Jeff's role as a financial mechanism for the United Nations Climate Change Convention. Milena is also joined today by Mr Pascal Martinez also from the Jeff who focuses on land use issues and particularly forest and agriculture and he contributes to the implementation of the Jeff strategy supporting developing countries to meet their commitments in the framework of the international environment mental agreements. Milena and Pascal we thank you for making time to join us today and we look forward to your presentation. Thank you very much for that introduction. I will start the presentation and then I will have Pascal take over so you can also hear a little bit from both of us. So as Khalil mentioned my name is Milena Gonzalez I work at the global environment facility as a climate change specialist and I'll be introducing the capacity building initiative for transparency and thankfully coming after Lisa it was a great segue to say this is one of the ways in which many countries have been getting more involved in the MRV. So next slide please. So the establishment of the CBIT and I will continue to use the word CBIT from now on but it's the capacity building initiative for transparency. Transparency as Lisa said is the cornerstone of the Paris agreement. For the first time each and every party has to put forward their own contribution and transparency is also preconditioned to raising climate ambition as because each party is putting it forward we have to build trust overall globally and it has to build accountability for all parties. However even though some of these reporting requirements have existed for over 20 years mostly for developed countries many developing countries still lack the capacity to effectively track report and enhance their inventories or NDCs and other reporting requirements. So at COP 21 when the Paris agreement was decided and adopted parties requested the JAS to support the establishment and the operation of a CBAT. The CBAT was drafted to require three aims. First to strengthen national institutions for transparency related activities in line with national priorities. Second to provide relevant tools training and assistance for meeting the provisions stipulated in article 13 of the Paris agreement. And third to assist in the improvement of transparency over time. And these three aims is what is the backbone of our CBAT programming strategy. So the idea is to make sure that CBAT projects help countries build their national institutional arrangements, build their national capacities, have the relevant tools and training in order to respond to the requirements of the article 13 and to make sure that this doesn't just end there. This is a capacity building activity that will continue on under the Paris agreement to make sure that transparency continues to build over time. As Lisa said this is something that has to be built. It's not something that magically happens with one little project. So with that, if we can pass the next slide, I wanted to give you a snapshot of the summary of CBAT support to date. So the Paris agreement decision was passed in 2015. Within a year by 2016 we had received generous donations from countries to set up a CBAT trust fund and start supporting countries with CBAT projects. Since then we've supported approximately 43 percent of non-NX1 parties, meaning through 68 projects supporting 67 countries with over a hundred million dollars. Most of these projects are national. As you can see in the map we've colored in green the projects that have started implementation and in blue the projects that are still at the concept stage. So they're developing their full project proposals before starting implementation. Over on the right side we have the distribution at the regional side, and a very good balance of regions. Quite a number of projects in Africa and Latin America in particular and more with our participation in Asia. So far we've supported 19 developed countries, 10 small island developing states, and two which are both LDC and SIDS. As I mentioned already 38 projects have become implementation, so we have about half projects from which we can start learning and exchanging those lessons learned with the other countries that are just starting their implementation. We also have five global projects which Pascal will discuss more about, and to date we've had what we call Jeff implementing agencies that have already been involved in CBIT projects and these include obviously FAO, which we're gratefully to be a partner with on the CBIT, as well as Conservation International, the Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations Environment Program, United Nations Development Program. Next slide please. This slide is just to discuss a little bit of what we've seen in the projects that so far we've approved that are at the country level, so national projects, and it's very important to say that these projects are completely determined nationally, so they have to respond to national priorities and they have to be aligned with countries and DCs. However, we have seen some trends which make sense considering that the project is aiming to raise the capacity to respond to certain obligations. So we've seen all projects have activities that respond to capacity building and training. This can look very differently depending on the country. It can be focused on a specific sector, but mostly, for example, would be to improve the capacity to deal with the 2006 IPCC guidelines. That's a common example for us. We've also seen a lot of projects have a focus on developing further their MRV systems and institutional arrangements to be able to handle this information. So for example, that could mean memorandums of understanding or data sharing agreements between different institutions at the country level, because as we know, MDCs cover many sectors for many countries, and so for the first time you're having to have strict agreements where you're saying this Ministry of Environment needs to receive information from the Ministry of Agriculture, from the Ministry of Mines, from the Ministry of Energy, and all of this information needs to be compiled into not only for inventories but also to inform on MDC progress. Interestingly, we've seen, so it is a requirement under the new Transparency Framework to track the progress of the MDC in terms of mitigation, but adaptation, even though it's optional, is obviously a priority, and we've seen that that is a priority for many LDCs and SIDS that have been supported by the CBIT. On the fewer percentages, I guess we will see tracking climate finance, even though this is a new aspect of the Enhanced Transparency Framework. We have not seen many projects that have yet focused on that, and that just goes to show as well that capacities start at a different level, and that's part of the Paris Agreement, right? We're all, each country starting with a different set of capacities, and for many the basic is strengthening the inventory and the MRB system. So the next steps which are these additional aspects that make the Transparency Framework enhanced under the Paris Agreement include tracking climate finance, which is very new and which requires a lot more development, as well as, for example, things that have to do with the AFOLU sector, which we're going to be talking a lot more today. It is a very challenging sector for many countries. It's a very challenging sector anyway, but for many countries it is a priority. So we've also seen in some countries where that is a main sector for their inventories to be a focus. Finally, just to say that the key considerations in CBIT projects when we're looking at these proposals, in addition to ensuring that they're aligned with the requirements of the article 13 and the countries in DC, we want to make sure that they're responding to identified capacity needs. So one example would be the international consultation and analysis process that some countries have gone through once they've submitted their biennial update report under the convention. We also make sure that it's aligned with coordination with other support. The GF is one partner in this, but we know that there's many other partners, not only including the FAO, but also ICAT, PAPA, etc., making sure that it has coordination with ministries and that there's a feedback of data and information back into policy development. Because as Lisa said, it is very important that this is not just about tracking and reporting to a convention, but that this is useful to the country itself. So how can you make sure that this information feeds back to the ministries to support your own NDC objectives and your development policies? And finally, linkage with the global coordination platform. So I'll pass it on to Pascal to talk more about that. You have to unmute your microphone, please. Now you can talk. Okay, I'm sorry for that. Good afternoon, good morning everyone. I'm Pascal and I'm working with Milena and concretely we are in the team who review the project, who ensure that the project are aligned with all the requirements of the convention, the Paris Agreement, and also with our own guidelines. So just to focus very briefly on some AFOL project and also on this global platform, a global project that we have. So we have actually indeed some projects which are exclusive focused on the AFOL sector, as it has been already mentioned, first by Lisa and then by Milena. This is very a particular sector. So this justifies why we may have to focus on this sector in particular, because some countries, of course there are many sectors, but in some countries in the NDCs, the forest and agriculture sector are very very very important. So it might require this particular focus. As we see, it's only 12 projects so far out of the 68, so it's not that much, but anyway the AFOL sector can be seen in all of the CBIT project or nearly all because it's always there, but in some projects it is only focused on the AFOL sector, so it's quite limited. Supposedly we see mainly in Asia and in the Lak region, not in Africa, only one I think, but it's because maybe there are very few projects so far, which is very important when we review the project and I will go back to what Milena said before. It's very important to meet the three CBIT objectives and the last one, the transparency of the time, is very often missing and requires more adjustment in the project proposal that we receive. So this is very important when the project developers are submitting proposals to the Jeff to really ensure that all the three objectives are really well taken into account. And so of course why this AFOL project is because, as it has been said, we have very specific issues to address in this sector. It's not the same tools, not the same requirements in terms of report or transparency. It's not the same institutional arrangements, so it requires specific challenges. More or less, to give an idea, it's not specific of the AFOL sector. The average, the budget average is about one million, everything included one point two million, so it gives you an idea of what is the size of this project. Sometimes we receive proposals with much more resources required and this also may not be so well aligned and so I mean so aligned with what is really available for such kind of activities and requires some more time for the project preparation. So it's important to have this in mind more or less. And also, while this is very key, the when LGBT criteria is a very strong alignment with the the NDCs, it is the first thing that when we review projects the first thing that we will see look at is the NDC of the countries and if for instance we have AFOL proposal and the countries target the energy sector as the main important sector, we cannot accept this kind of project. So this is very very important to to align with the NDCs and as we got to the global project that supports the CBIT, by first we have to consider this as a as a as a wall, as a big community of practice to share knowledge and lessons at global level to make the link between what is going on on our country level and what is what is then can be shared with the other countries through this this platform. It began, the CBIT began in 20 to be implemented as of Jeff, it began in 2016 and and first we began with this first CBIT global coordination platform which was launched in 2018 and it was the first project to set the scene to set all the important elements of transparency at global level which included the foster coordination of transparency action and needs, share lessons learned through the regional and global meetings and also facilitate access to emerging standards and guidance on transparency actions and then it moved to a bigger project that are now being being developed which is this global CBIT platform phase two phase phase two A and phase two B actually this is the same project it just corresponds to two different phase of budgeting so we have this global and platform which includes all these all the different sectors and we have again because it's particular two projects that are being implemented by FAO, CBIT Forest and CBIT AFOLU to address these specific sectors the total budget of these global initiatives it's around 13 million dollars and it is led by three agencies UNDP UNEP and FAO of course FAO for this land news related project and and well the objective is to facilitate global knowledge sharing through partnerships and also this includes all the global initiatives. Milena mentioned briefly also this of course we make the link with the ICATS with the PAPTA with NDC partnership with PASTI all this kind of other initiatives that work towards transparency and climate we are trying to make the link and this is a very important also for each of the national project to link with this global platforms global initiatives to enable to make also the link with the others global initiatives so these are sort of criteria that we look at very strongly when we receive the project proposal it's to take into account the relevant global platform that they need the national project need to work with and and just some takeaway a key takeaways and a message first the project must support the national priorities and needs this is very very important this alignment and this is not only for CBAT project for the Jeff it is globally for any projects as a Jeff to link also transparency it's important to link transparency with the national development agenda of course because if you want to this project to be sustainable it has to to respond to this need for alignment and this coherence with the development agenda in the country it's very important to ensure this the project is by voted by the country also as I said before the global CBAT project very very important to enhance the partnership and and maximize learning opportunities and knowledge sharing and lastly what is very important also to have in mind is that the CBAT support will continue we are open for business and we every week we keep on reviewing new proposals so yes Jeff is continuing his work on CBAT right now thank you very much for your attention thank you so much to Milena and Pascal for the overview and the reflections on the extensive support provided by Jeff and also between the Jeff and the partnership I had a few more words to share but given the time I know that our our director at the FAO Forestry Department METE has to run to another meeting so in lieu of doing that I will turn the floor directly to METE and then we can continue to follow up after that METE the floor is yours thank you so much Khalil and dear speakers and participants I'm really excited to be here today and together with colleagues of the climate change secretariat and the global environment facility to highlight the importance of forest data transparency as Khalil says I do have another appointment that I have to run to but let me just give you a couple of remarks from my side we've all seen heat waves and drought scenes of flooding and storms and raging forest fires it shows us just how much climate change affect our lives more than anything it threatens our ability to ensure global food security eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development the global response to climate change today will determine how we feed future generations tomorrow and forests must be an integral part of this response to reach the goal of the Paris agreement on climate change to limit the rise of global temperatures to well below two degrees Celsius we really need to take action and take action now to limit our emissions and to do so we need to be better informed in order to take the best decisions for this we need better data we know that together with improved land management options forests and trees could provide up to 30 percent of that greenhouse gas reductions that we are needed by 2030 to stay just below the two degrees and recognizing this many developing countries have been part already on a journey to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation the red plus in order to help them with their planning and implementation and monitoring of their reductions a fair support countries who wish to overcome data gaps and improve the quality and the transparency of forest related data and information and we have a number of initiatives under which we do that and you will hear a little bit more about those later that forest monitoring is critical to make sure that countries stay on target with regard to their emission reduction targets but it also helps them to redesign their policies to take into account up-to-date reliable transparent and accessible information and this is crucial and that's why we have been working in FAO over the past many decades to help build the capacity to get that unprecedented transparency in forest data in in addition to making sure that they are very solid we're working with a growing number of countries so that they are now able to meet those international reporting requirements what we've done has also helped draw some lessons for the Paris agreements enhanced transparency framework that you heard about already we know that this has made a difference 50 countries have so far submitted their forest reference emission levels and two-thirds of those have been supported by FAO in doing so even last month we've seen red plus results submitted by Uganda the first country in Africa to do so and we've seen others that have already received funding from the Green Climate Fund for results based on better data on their emission reductions here in FAO we conduct what we call the global forest resources assessment every five years and we just come up with the results of the 2020 assessment the key results the main reports coming up next Tuesday so stay tuned it does show us that deforestation continues but the positive news is it is slowing down so some actions have been taken and we have started to see the results of those we need to make sure that that action continues and we need to make sure that it's sufficient and to be sure of this we need solid and transparent information and as we progress towards the enhanced transparency transfer framework that Lisa spoke about FAO needs to make sure that our guidance is up to date we need to continue to provide that capacity building and knowledge sharing support to countries so that they can meet their targets and so that we can all live in a world without the worst effect of climate change the CBIT the capacity building initiative for transparency that we carry out for forest and this e-learning course we're launching today are some important steps towards this goal the COVID-19 pandemic has meant the closure of many educational and training institutions so I'm delighted that we are launching this today on the world youth skills day young people are those that are most demanding change or most actively demanding change but we hope that this course will become an important tool for all those young and not so young who want to help make the changes that are required to happen and we think that this moment in time is a good time to launch such a course with the pandemic it's wise to stay at home and what better thing to do than to get stuck into material about how we can together shape a better nature positive and data driven tomorrow let me hand over to my colleague Rocha we will tell you much more about FAO's work on an open and transparent forest data I hope you enjoy this course and wish you the best of luck hi thank you very much Mette let me share the presentation thanks Mette for setting the scene and helping me highlight why forests are so important for all of us forests play a central role in combating climate change by absorbing and storing carbon from the atmosphere in their vegetation and soils therefore given the significant climate change mitigation potential of forest improving the transparency of forest related data and information within the enhanced transparency framework of the Paris Agreement is timely indeed urgent in order to translate this potential interaction a fully functioning multi-purpose national forest monitoring system allow countries to track progress on climate action and effectively report on forest related emissions and removals as well as respond to their own forest data needs we tailor national forest monitoring systems countries are able to develop informed forest and land use policies with proven knowledge and update transparent and accessible information building an NFMS is a complex national scale effort that must consider multiple institutional technical and financial aspects the system should increase transparency reliability of information produced and ensure a long-term perspective through participatory processes that include multiple stakeholders with different skills who must be identified and informed throughout ultimately national forest monitoring systems can help countries to meet the requirements of the ETF building partnerships helps ensure the impact of forest monitoring support including with intergovernmental and governmental organizations resource partners universities and civil society especially john woman and men efforts to support forest monitoring should focus on strengthening the development of an NFMS but how is file contributed to efforts toward implementation of the Paris Agreement in the forest sector building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector so-called CBIT forest is a two-year project of the FAO financed by the CBIT trust fund of the global environment facility aiming to strengthen the institutional and technical capacities of developing countries to collect analyze and disseminate forest related data it will support countries in meeting the ETF requirements of the Paris Agreement and contribute with information necessary to track progress made implementing and achieving the national determined contributions this CBIT project is built on already existing efforts of the FAO to support countries on forest monitoring at global and national levels therefore this project is being implemented by FAOS global forest resource assessment and the national forest monitoring teams these last one already supporting 70 countries in their forest monitoring to ensure more sustainable forest management and better reporting but how are we doing that by organizing a sub regional and national workshops across Asia and Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean to build countries and sub regions capacity to enhance their national forest monitoring system 26 countries targeted as well as 187 countries and territories included as part of the global network of national correspondence for the global forest resource assessment up to the 30th of June 231 individuals 68 percent men and 30 32 percent women from around 20 institutions in six pilot countries including Honduras, Guatemala, Uganda, Côte d'Avoire, Thailand and Laos have been consulted and involved virtually up to now strengthen the network of key partners such as the UNFCCC the global forest observation initiative UNEP UNDP by seeking cooperation to work on products or activities of the project upgrading FAOS global forest resource assessment 2020 reporting and dissemination platform to make forest data reporting easier in the future developing a spreadsheet based tool to facilitate the assessment of gaps and needs in countries national forest monitoring system building and maintaining continuous awareness of the project using our web page which includes news and information resources we have also identified cases studies from Costa Rica, Bangladesh and the and the Democratic Republic of the Congo which are already ready to be shared our material is aimed variously at policymakers, technical experts, students and anyone interested in transparency in the forest sector last but not least developing the e-learning course to enable access to knowledge about the ETF and forests to anyone anywhere and just before presenting the e-learning models let me share with you some of the publications we include the flyer of the project cases studies the posture and the brief info of the national forest monitoring assessment tool all this material will shortly be available in multiple languages with this slide I would like to introduce some key information related to the e-learning on forests and transparency under the Paris Agreement you will learn about the role and importance of forests in tackling climate change how the ETF under the Paris Agreement can be addressed in the forest sector and how the national forest monitoring systems can help countries to meet the requirements of the ETF. The course contains three models and will take one hour 30 minutes to finalize it a free of charge and soon multiple language courses will be accessible online or then lovable here you have the link for the English version and before moving ahead with the models let me mention that a series of technical experts from the FAO and the UNFCCC have largely contributed to this effort as well as other institutions such as the IPCC, UNDP, UNFDTU among others let's fastly navigate into these models the first model will explain how we are moving from the measurement reporting verification frameworks tower the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris Agreement but also reviews the fundamental role of forests and how they are related to the ETF. The second model reviews the goal and scope of a national forest monitoring system and presents key guidance elements to strengthen national forest monitoring capacities increasing their transparency and long-term reliability. Let me highlight that at the end of this model you will be able to download the new national forest monitoring system assessment tool I mentioned previously it is free Excel-based tool available already in English, French and Spanish. The last model discuss how national forest monitoring system enable countries to produce reliable and transparent data and thus contribute with the ETF. Let me highlight that this model is sharing country examples but has also included cases studies from different regions. Join us to the upcoming webinar to be held on the 21st of July if you want to learn more details on Costa Rica cases study. I would like to thank you very much for your attention and participation today we were around 3300 participants. I would also like to thank colleagues from the FAO that have contributed to this global effort and let me end by saying that the World Youth Skills Day 2020 is taking place in a challenging context however I'm looking ahead that the FAO and the United system and partners can support the world to build back better by working together training ISKI. Thank you. Lovely thank you so much to Mete for the warm and heartfelt opening remarks and also to Rocio for the overview of the CBIT forest project and of course for walking us through I think some of the preliminary lessons that the e-learning course provides to students. Now luckily we've been surprisingly very much so on time so we leave ourselves with a full half an hour for discussion and for questions and answers and I can see that the the Q&A box below has been filled up and we also have some some discussion questions planned. Now as we move into the to the discussion and given that today is World Youth Skills Day I would like to invite my friends from the International Forestry Students Association IFSA and specifically the president Mr. Amos Amanubu to provide a statement as well as start us off by posing the first question to the panel. Amos we're always happy to collaborate with IFSA and we thank you for joining us. Thank you very much Khalil for the invitation. IFSA is always proud to be part of such initiatives and it's of course a great pleasure to be part of this remarkable day and this remarkable initiative. I mean students and learners have been mentioned several times and this is only the beginning. The International Forestry Students Association is a globally organized and locally operating student organization. Through the different commissions you can simply put it's IFSA. Through the different commissions IFSA connects forestry students to their peers and forest-related organizations and policy platforms thereby acting as a knowledge hub. We connect thousands of students and young professionals in the forestry sector around the world to share experiences to prepare them to meet the needs of the ever evolving and dynamic forest sector. Through our capacity development commission we seek opportunities to develop the skills of IFSA officials and members and create new learning content through our different subcommissions to broaden the knowledge of our members. IFSA has a tried and tested record of sharing the development of forest education and knowledge management more so in collaboration with some of its professional global and regional partners. Having previously successfully worked with a number of teams in FAO on forest education the launch of the e-learning platform provides IFSA with yet another opportunity to broaden the horizon of its impact in forest education and capacity development. Also enabling it to therefore uniquely and directly contribute to the goals that the capacity building initiative for transparency received it aims to achieve with reference to the Paris climate agreement. IFSA takes delight and and pleasure in being part of this initiative and promoting it without limits not only to build capacity of its members or learners around the world but also to create a world that appreciates forest. This is something that's coherent with the vision of IFSA. So then I come to my selected question to Russia. I'd like to ask you miss Russia as the program coordinator of the CBIT forest program. The CBIT shortly mentioned points at knowledge transfer and access the e-learning initiative and information sharing as a key step towards achieving enhanced transparency and capacity. However we have noticed that COVID-19 has demonstrated how learning and knowledge transfer institutions are vulnerable due to the technological underdevelopment in LDCs these developed countries for which the CBIT and the Paris climate agreement place a high consideration. We're not a failure to cope up with virtual learning in this category of countries. As students studying forests and its related impact on climate change and biodiversity to them to name a few how will this course help us make more climate action how will help us take more climate action and what are the tangible benefits for students to protect in this e-learning course students or learners and just to follow up how prepared are the initiatives and the involved definitive partners or stakeholders in this course to make the information access knowledge transfer effective in the unfortunate event that COVID is here to stay or other limited aforementioned shortcomings such as technological underdevelopment or low internet bandwidth in at least developed countries. Thank you very much. First of all thank you thank you first Amos and thank you also other EFSA colleagues for attending today and thank also for your important question. We are excited to have young people here with us and especially on World Youth Scale Day. We understand the value of building capacity at all levels to ensure that no one is left behind and all are capable of taking action. To answer your question simply this course was designed with you in mind. It serves to clarify not only why forests are an extremely important solution to climate crisis but further the breakdown and walk participants through an important global agreement such as the Paris Agreement which has complexity and uses. The course can help participants, country colleagues and students to better understand and ingest some of the actions taken by their governments to enhance forest data and transparency. The three models I presented try to focus on how the global decisions connect to the national context where ultimately action can take place at global level and through civil society. We know more than ever that distance training is essential and common way of imparting skills especially those with considerable difficulties. We also know that youth unemployment is high and if youth are expected to adapt and contribute to the recovery effort they will need to be equipped with the right skills and even more resilience. Our hope is that this course and our further work helps to begin to eliminate any perceived barrier to action and also further show how open and transparent data is critical to that aspiration. Thank you almost so much for the intervention as mentioned we always love to collaborate with IFSA and to have young foresters and young climate activists with us. I see the questions are now rolling in I think people have found the Q&A box we have over 24 questions but we've still got some time together so to start off the broader dialogue I wanted to go back to Lisa from the UNFCCC and started a broader aspect of our dialogue. As you mentioned in your presentation and I've also read that Article 13 in the Paris Agreement really underpins many of the other articles that are set out and can really be viewed as fundamental to supporting successful implementation. So the question is would you be able to say a few words on Article 13 how the civic projects enhance national capacities and related to that there was a question that was posed from the floor by Natalie Fauré apologies for my pronunciation which says can you also talk about some of the key challenges that you encounter when implementing ETF in practice. Thank you Danielle this is a very good question. The Article 13 is related to many articles of the Paris Agreement because it's about the provision of information it's about the provision of information about what a country is doing with respect to greenhouse gas emissions and removals policies and actions their finance needs it's conveying in an open manner what is being done to achieve the nationally determined contribution and this is a very important year in 2020 with countries communicating their updated NDCs and it's sort of the start of transparency because it's important that those communications are also clear and transparent and that those actions are then trapped over time. This will be conveyed in the first BTR in 2024 at the latest and so the information it's important to start now and that's why I think CBIT is so important. Capacity building is going to be key and creating the institutions to support this process will be key. You were talking about some of the challenges and from the party side I think the establishment of a sustainable system for collecting data, reporting data over time is one of the key challenges now and it will continue to be a key challenge and it's good that we see so much interest and I saw a hundred percent of Elena's graph was related to institutional and capacity building it's the heart of it. I think another key challenge from a party's perspective will be just data collection. I mean we've seen it in the inventory world that that's one of the the main challenges and again that's why I liked this course is it talks about the importance of collecting data for multiple multiple reasons. Just to respond to Natalie's question a little bit more I think another challenge we see from our side and what we're really working from on the secretariat side is to help prepare countries. It seems like 2024 is a long time away but it's not it takes time to build these systems and so I think we're looking at ways to to help countries we hope countries will come to us and identify ways we can we can work with them further. Yeah I think and I guess that maybe the final comment would be that the best preparation for the enhanced transparency framework is participation now. About 57 developing countries have submitted their BUR at this stage and so we hope to see more in the coming years and start transitioning that to the VTRs. Thank you. Thanks so much Lisa and then maybe staying broad in scope. I wanted to go to our colleagues Pascal and Milena from the Jeff. In your presentation I think you gave a really nice overview of the sort of full support that the Jeff provides through the Sibit portfolio and how those break down as well as highlighting some of the complexity of achieving transparency within these different sectors that the Jeff funds. I think you stated that currently the Jeff funds 68 Sibit projects and channels resources to both national level projects least developed countries and of course there's the five global Sibit projects of which the the CBIT forest is one. So can you sort of unwrap this a bit more this complexity? How do these projects differ in their objectives and I suppose how do they kind of aggregate into a pathway that leads to eventually to enhance transparency? Yeah thank you so much that's a very important question because obviously it's kind of how the whole Paris Agreement is working right? It's a response to national priorities and each country has to put forward their part but how is it going to work globally to make sure that we're advancing together? I think with CBIT projects what we're seeing is it's absolutely important to help national and countries through these national projects to develop their own institutional arrangements and capacities because that is they have to play a part in this wider scope that Lisa explained so it's very important for them to develop their own technical capacity for data collection for inventories for tracking to be able to participate in the enhanced transparency framework. So most of our funding is going to national projects because of that however we have found that there are certain areas where additional let's say either technical development needs to be carried out such as in the forestry sector which is why we have these global projects that are trying to fill in those gaps for topics where perhaps a wider network and additional and technical explorations through technical capacity buildings such as these very important cores have to be carried out so we have found that with forestry and with the affluence sectors that's why we have those two really key global projects that FAO is implementing and then on the wider scale we have the global platform which aims to provide additional spaces for exchange knowledge sharing between regions so we can see for example there we have certain projects in certain regions that are that have similar challenges so we want them to talk to each other and share how they're you know how you know how are you developing your indicators for adaptation which sectors are you focusing on these kinds of exchanges are really important so that's why we've set up the global platform so that we can encourage those types of exchanges at the regional level as well as at the global level and try to identify additional needs and gaps that might might be surging as countries go on these national tracks so perhaps they didn't realize that scenario modeling was going to be tougher that it was an area of need and so now we can decide whether or not we want additional support on a priority area that we hadn't identified before so I think that that kind of explains your question yeah thanks no I think riffing off sort of what you've just spoken about but also at least I covered that countries are really starting off at different places as we know with capacity and with institutional arrangements and it points to a program and funding which really needs to be flexible and focuses on learning and learning from each other really to address the complexity of what transparency is so then I'll ask you again Melina and Pascal within that that global portfolio how does that Jeff ensure that data is being shared that the lessons are being learned through the project implement implementation but really that countries are learning from their neighbors and that they're collectively building capacity together so one of the key ways that we do that is we ensure that all projects have activities that are focused on knowledge management knowledge sharing and participating not only in the global platform but also in the regional networks that we have so that is really really important if you don't give it a budget then you know you you can't ensure that it's going to happen and obviously there's a lot of different priorities and activities that need to that need to be carried out so that is one way and another way is to keep trying to support countries through the additional partners that we have in this area so as I said in my presentation the Jeff is not the only partner in this we have iCat we have we have all of the agencies that are working through the Jeff projects but they also have their own activities webinars such as this so we try to just raise awareness and and continue our outreach to make sure that this knowledge sharing is reaching as many different stakeholders as possible great thanks Melina yeah just to mention colleagues all of the questions we're going to do our best to address them and I'll bring them up sort of in the related discussion question as well so I see that there's a question that is on coronavirus and how it's linked to climate change we'll do our best to address these upvoted questions and any questions that we do not address just for everyone's knowledge we will share with the panelists and do our best to get back to you in written form as well so hopefully no one's worried but um yeah again riffing of what you've said Melina I think it's really important that we're creating sort of learning networks and we're using the opportunity for workshops and meetings to kind of build a community of practice and that's really critical for sort of trial and error and so that these communities begin to learn and build capacity but I want to hone in a little bit more on the role that forests play and building off a question that was asked by Mr. Armando Alanes from Mexico as we now transition from this role of MRV measurement reporting and verification towards the new enhanced transparency framework traditionally red plus and forests have sort of well they've sat under this MRV and now with as we move to ETF well how are those changes going to arise where do these reporting elements now sit do they get reported under the enhanced transparency framework and what do you think then the main challenges for countries will be during this transition thank you that's to me right thank you yeah this is I think this is a very important question and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries this whole red plus framework it's it's one of the biggest opportunities for reductions particularly in the affluent sector and the Warsaw framework has been evolving over the years and we're seeing more and more countries that are starting to participate in the process I think Meta responded to this in her presentation that there are now 50 countries who have submitted red plus results and or a framework forest reference level and so you can see more and more countries are getting involved in the process now those red plus results are attached to the BUR the biennial update report this is just going to transition they'll instead of transitioning or attached to the current BUR they'll be attached to the BTR as an annex of the biennial transparency report the requirements don't change and so it's just transitioning to a new vehicle for reporting and so this is why we try to emphasize again and again that the best way to prepare for the enhanced transparency framework is really to start now and to start becoming aware of the requirements to develop the capacities to do the reporting now in the case of red plus there are no real changes between now and under the Paris agreement and so I think we should only see increased participation in these activities over the years it is a complex sector I think all of us who have been involved in the reporting round know that Lulis the F and Far straight it's complex and so working now will will provide the foundation for the future so thanks thanks yeah and then building off that maybe we can turn to Rocio for a question now of course Rocio the National Forest Monitoring Systems are a fundamental pillar in support of the red plus framework and the red plus program and in your presentation I think you gave a really nice overview of how how important transparent forest data is to reporting to the Paris agreement as well how the CIP it Forest project aims to enhance the NFMS through collaborating with country partners so I was hoping you could share with us some of the experiences within your pilot countries and also maybe highlight the tool that you've also developed which complements the e-learning course and how this is helping countries to prioritize their actions thank you very much Khalil well first of all maybe just to briefly share with you that the tool provides an assessment of the National Forest Monitoring System about key good practices aggregated in three categories institutional arrangements measurement estimation and reporting and verification this tool facilitates the identification of needs and gaps in order to establish and strengthen countries forest monitoring therefore it can be used by countries at various starting points while working with pilot countries to the project we have seen that the tool has a facilitated capacity assessment of the system and facilitation of dialogue with national key stakeholders helping to tool their firsthand knowledge of a problem or development challenge and identify possible solutions it also helped to identify the opportunities for improvement of the national forest monitoring system in addition the tool has facilitated understanding and found voluntary guidance on national forest monitoring and has helped also to build work plans together with stakeholders and partners so I think that experience we are getting with the pilot countries is helping us tailor better the products and all the activities we have to implement in the coming months thank you Halia back to you yeah thanks Rocio yeah so the tool I think as you mentioned really helps to identify the alignment under those three broad categories but maybe most importantly really prioritizes the actions that need to be taken to improve the national forest monitoring system and I think it really highlights the importance that both the public and decision makers have access to the most accurate transparent and timely forest data so we can understand not only the current status of our forests but how do they compare globally and I think this is related to the next question I wanted to ask and relates to a question that was posed by one of the colleagues in the chat which is why despite a vast network and fund availability why haven't we seen a desire change globally so I want to go back to Lisa for this question Lisa can you elaborate for us I mean we mentioned I think how the enhanced transparency in article 13 sort of have the compliance angle but is there really the ETF is also sold as this way to build ambition and further climate action so perhaps you can elaborate more how beyond allowing countries to compare to one another why does it help countries be more ambitious with their climate proposals yeah thank you and actually the UNFCCC just released a publication yesterday looking at the ICA process the international consultation and analysis process and that's for the developing countries and the BURs and it highlights how transparency has boosted mitigation action and it's really because transparency is about being an open book you're providing the information to the public the compliance regime as you said under the Paris Agreement it's facilitative but there's also the kind of the public opinion you're presenting all of your information out there it's being reviewed countries are then showcasing what they're doing and so there's an opportunity to you know kind of collectively see where you're going and so it enhances ambition because you're kind of accountable to the to the court of public opinion and you can see over time whether you need to enhance the ambition there's a having this information open and available is an important step to see you know collectively I think Malina mentioned this in her presentation if collectively all countries are doing enough and if they're not doing enough they'll be pressured to enhance ambition internally and that will then be shown through the next nationally determined contribution so I think the transparency leads to enhanced ambition right so it's I mean sufficiently it's more than just the compliance but of course it's this facilitative process and then in the court of public opinion which holds everyone accountable and provides more ambitious ambition for climate action but that'd be interesting to to read that new publication by Yuka as well okay so we're at 355 but I think it's important that we address maybe the most upvoted question on COVID and the impacts of COVID so to do that I wanted to go back to the Jeff and I think it's important to ask about really the impact of COVID on the discussion of climate action and there's been many dialogues on this FAO forestry had a webinar in the middle of June also discussing sort of the broader impacts of COVID on the forestry sector and of course the the impacts are far-reaching and there have been some silver linings of positivity with I read this morning that the COVID could potentially trigger the largest ever annual fall in CO2 emissions but we know this is perhaps more of a blip than an overall trend so as we begin to think about the economic restart and we begin to think about the impacts it can have on climate ambition perhaps I can go to Pascal on this one as an operating entity of the UNFCCC has a financial mechanism and a key stakeholder and funding opportunities where do you see the most urgent need for catalytic catalytic investments in nature and overall for climate action thank you Khalil actually it's a very complex question and it's much broader than a transparency framework and even climate action I think indeed yes we we we see that the first quick recovery packages that we are hearing about are not very encouraging in terms of green packages actually I think except two or three countries and European Union there is very limited action that tends to to try to to promote green packages and which include nature so so yes we we really need to to think about it and and the Jeff well the Jeff is is a very well positioned for this this kind of reflection because we we are promoting the the environment conservation in general which include climate change but not only this pandemic came from from from the interface between nature and humans so it is very important to try to tackle the issue of environmental degradation which leads to more and more contact with with nature and increase the risk so I think some very important investment in the future must be related to nature so nature based solution maybe a good area to think about I think also the resilience is very important to take into account climate adaptation also because it's a lack of resilience which lead to further environmental degradation with kind of this kind of pandemic and here the CBIT because of this transparency and this capacity of improving the knowledge of what's going on with the forest in terms of deforestation degradation of forest this capacity of tracking what's going on in the field I think it's a have a role to play which can be also useful for this for this thing and the Jeff is already working at project level how to see we can we can further design and implement the ongoing proposals we are working also with the country themselves to see what would then need and what could be programmed in the with Jeff resources that would be aligned with Jeff requirements and also responded to the crisis crisis and we have to also to have in mind that very soon will begin the the negotiation for the Jeff 8 cycle from 2022-2026 so and this will be an opportunity to take into account with the further ongoing discussions what can be done to try to limit the risk of further crisis like this so yes it's an ongoing reflection we are trying to do our best with our position we are well positioned but I think it's very difficult to have a definitive answer at this point on the situation thank you yeah thanks so so much Pascal for the for the reflections and colleagues I'm very aware that we are now coming upon the hour so allow me to take us from the very broad question of the impact of COVID on forests and generally the affolus sector back to what we're actually here for today which was the launching of the three e-learning courses so I wanted to turn the last word and perhaps the last question to Rocio. Rocio let me start by congratulating you and the team for all the hard work that you've done in collaboration with the e-learning academy to launch the the three e-learning modules but perhaps you can give us a sneak peek of what's next so we've done this work we have this e-learning course and of course we encourage everyone to go take the the courses but perhaps you can give us a sneak peek of what's next thank you very much Halil and just to share to let you know that capacity development often involves enhancing the knowledge and the skills of individuals whose work results greatly rely on the performance of the organization in which they work therefore the project will contribute and assist in the improvement of transparency skills over time with different interventions including self-paced e-learning in multiple languages blended learning activities technical webinars and massive open online course the second calp of the year we are already working with the FAO e-learning academy to launch the mock aiming to involve men and women from our pilot countries and a large number of countries as well as john students to facilitate knowledge exchange on forest and transparency we will also aim to participate to key global events to share knowledge including the upcoming world forestry congress to be held in may 2021 in the republic of korea last congress actually brought together 4 000 participants for from 138 countries thanks back to you thanks so much rooseo there's a lot of exciting news from all of our panelists which is great and and again i think we're quickly running out of time so i'll take a moment just to wrap up quickly i'll start by thanking all of our panelists for contributing to the rich dialogue and really unpacking what is a complex global process and helping many of us move towards a better understanding of the work of the cbit the cbit forest and really the fundamental contribution to increased climate action a few key messages that i picked up throughout the session that resonated were better and clearer data clearly helps countries see how they how individually they're globally responding to climate crisis as well as rewarding ambitious efforts um that i think this was reiterated a few times that estimating emissions and removals from the sector is complex very complex and as such programs such as those funded through the jeff and those implemented by feo are imperative to supporting and improving data collection um and that finally enhanced transparency plays a fundamental role increasing increasing ambition it creates an open book it creates an even playing field and allows for further collective learning through which a community and countries can show case their successes and their failures and learn from one another so as we wrap up i'd like to ask for three things the first one is please do go and take the e-learning course our colleagues have worked very hard on that uh the second is to take the final poll so we understand how you plan to use the e-learning course and finally to join us next week we will be taking this global dialogue um to the national context as we join our colleagues from Costa Rica and to look at their national forest monitoring and land use system with that i'll say thank you very much for my side and i will turn the floor over to uh Christina Petraki for the closing remarks yes thank you thank you very much Khalil i just wanted to ask if it's possible to put back the slide with the links to the courses so then people can have access to them if possible thank you yes no as uh as basically mentioned in all the different presentations what we need yes of course is reliable data but we also need to develop the capacities of professionals which are then able to basically act and integrate them and convert them into appropriate policies sustainable actions and interventions so i think that what we really need is competent professionals and this is why i wanted to mention that the FL e-learning academy offers all of these in e-learning courses which are all competency-based courses and i wanted to underline this which means that we need to really look at the professional profiles that are required and on the competencies that are needed and uh and all the courses um and in all the courses we really look into all of the the skills but also the competence that are needed i also wanted to mention that the FL e-learning academy is not only self-paced e-learning courses but also a number of activities as also mentioned but by rossio we will be doing a a MOOC a massive open online course on the transparency framework and i also wanted to mention that there are a number of other courses that could be actually very relevant to all of you courses related to all the the various challenges that humanity is facing so food losses food waste nutrition sustainable food value chains sustainable food systems but also climate smart agriculture and a number of other thematic areas that could be of interest however to go back to our thematic area today we have listed here for you a number of forestry related courses that could be highly relevant we start with the one that we are launching today but we have also a course on the sustainable development goal indicators 15.1.1 and 15.2.1 that could also be of interest and a course on climate smart forestry and a number of other courses related to forestry that you can see here i would like to conclude this excellent launch by thanking the the colleagues from UNF CCC Jeff of course also the fellow colleagues that have been involved in the development of the course and also in the organization of this event but also our partners behind the scenes agrenium and UNS cup the colleagues that have been working behind the scenes on the platform which are Fabio Piccinic Aristide Bukare and Sara Ferrante and our excellent also a moderator, Khalil Welji and of course all of you thank you all very much for attending this webinar thank you very much