Understanding environmental and social trends in the forest sector
The monitoring of forests is important to track how changes in the ecosystem and policy actions are affecting environmental, social and economic outcomes. There is a range of digital platforms, data and tools that can assist in monitoring and analysis, though navigating among this increasing list of resources can be challenging.
The Sustainable Forest Trade in the Lower Mekong Region (SFT-LMR) Project has compiled information on a set of global and regional platforms, data and tools, with the goal of helping users to access digital resources that can help them to better understand or track social and environmental trends and outcomes in the forest sector.
Why monitor environmental and social trends in the forest sector?
The monitoring of forests is important to track how changes in the ecosystem are affecting environmental, social and economic outcomes.
This information is also essential for understanding the impacts of actions in the forest sector. For example, strengthening the protection of natural forests may lead to positive impacts on forest health, biodiversity and ecosystem services; but at the same time, restricting access to forests may have negative impacts on people who depend on forests for resources and livelihoods.
Monitoring environmental and social forest trends can help countries and other stakeholders to:
- Identify whether policies or actions in the forest sector are delivering on key national or local objectives;
- Understand how trends in the forests are affecting communities and local stakeholders;
- Provide information for reporting on international and national commitments, including for REDD+ Safeguards Information Systems;
- Provide information on the quality of forest management and production;
- Identify needs for improving the implementation and sustainability of forest policies.
