Forests

Forests are an invaluable natural resource; they help to control the climate, provide us with timber and other products, and are home to well over half of all terrestrial species.

UNEP-WCMC's Forest, Dryland and Freshwater Programme offers information, analysis and capacity building at national and international levels to improve management of forests worldwide.

• Volcan Momotobo and Lake Managua

  A series of regional workshops are being held to agree on stategies for the sustainable use of timber tree species in international trade. The first workshop, for Mesoamerica, was held in Nicaragua in 2005.
• The Forest Restoration Information Service (FRIS) is an open-access information service supporting forest restoration projects world-wide by:
  
  • documenting current efforts in forest restoration,
  • facilitating exchange of knowledge and experience among forest restoration projects,
  • helping to identify lessons learned and best practice.
    
    
• The Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP) project focuses on evaluating the contribution that NTFPs make to the livelihoods of forest-dependent rural poor in developing countries.
  
  
• An analysis of the level of protection provided to Europe's forests was completed in 2000. Maps and details of the analysis are available at the European Forests and Protected Areas: Gap Analysis 2000 website.
  
  
• The Biodiversity Indicators for National Use (BINU) project focuses on the development of biodiversity indicators to support planning and decision making at national levels.
  
  
• The Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative aims to create wider cooperation and greater action to promote the conservation, restoration and sustainable development of mountain cloud forest around the world.
  
  
• The Biodiversity Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use in Fragmented Landscapes (BIOCORES) project aims to identify sustainable approaches to land use, by identifying how biodiversity may be conserved in landscapes subjected to human use.
  
  
• The World Atlas of Great Apes, produced by UNEP-WCMC in collaboration with a network of ape specialists, examines factors threatening great ape populations including habitat degradation, road construction, logging and plantation establishment.