FAO in collaboration with WMD and FRMD organized an intensive working session from 15 to 19^th May in Paro, Bhutan in order to draft and finalize the roadmap for the national work in order to move forward with the national Forest Reference Level for Bhutan. The main objectives of the workshop were as follows:

Objectives of the Workshop

–To take stock of what is available for Bhutan FRL/ FREL development

-To seek guidance on Emission Factor (EF) development for FRL/FREL

-To design and finalize AD plan for FRL/FREL development.

-To train Bhutan Project technical staff on AD generation, compilation and analysis

-To prepare the (draft) needs for the outline of Bhutan FRL/FREL document

On the first day, beside Project Implementation Team (FREL) members, the meeting was attended by Technical working group (policy makers, senior managers, researchers and lecturers on forestry and environment). The technical training, on Activity Data was mainly attended by GIS experts and forest planners; the national team followed an intensive training and hands-on sessions held by a FAO international expert, Dr. Inge Jonckheere, in order to be able to finalize the GIS work by beginning 2018.

Participants of Water Management Division (WMD), Forest Resources Management Division(FMD) and FAO office Bhutan attended the trainings. The training was very successful and was attended by over 20 national experts and will allow the country to calculate the national forest area changes, also using the open source suite of modules Openforis and SEPAL developed by FAO Forestry in Rome, Italy.

“We are very glad with the support we have received so far from FAO, it really helped us to move forward, we are very happy with the collaboration”, stated Mr. Younten Phuntsho, Sr.FO, Foresty Officer of FRMD.

The FREL Team with the international FAO expert, Inge Jonckheere, Paro, Bhutan. Photo credit: Lobzang Dorji, Chief FRMD

Reported by Inge jonckheere, FAO

Event Date: 2017-05-20