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The Global Forest Information Service (GFIS) was an initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) and was a collaborative effort of 14 major forest-related international organizations, institutions and convention secretariat, aiming to maximize the value of all forest information resources and providers worldwide through the sharing of forest-related information through a single gateway. The effort was discontinued in 2021.
In the global policy context, the vision and mission of GFIS are consistent with the resolutions of the United Nations Forum on Forests [1] (UNFF) and the priorities of the CPF. GFIS was led by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO); together with FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR); [2] the UNFF Secretariat; and the Biological Informatics Office of the United States Geological Survey (USGS/BIO). [3]
In 1998, the International Consultation on Research and Information Systems in Forestry which was held in Gmunden, Austria, recommended that the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) should endorse and promote the development of a Global Forest Information Service to enhance access to all forest-related information, ensuring that it is accessible to all stakeholders including policy-makers, forest managers, non-governmental organizations, community groups and the public at large. [4]
Consequently, the IFF requested Inter-agency Task Force on Forests member organizations to work with International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) in exploring possibilities for a global forest information service. In implementing this request, IUFRO initiated various activities to establish GFIS. These included the establishment of a GFIS Task Force, the development of a GFIS information server and web-interface as well as the implementation of the "GFIS Africa" project to strengthen institutional capacities in developing countries.
The first version of GFIS was presented at the IUFRO European Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August 2002 and successfully demonstrated at the XII World Forestry Congress in Quebec, Canada, in September 2003. It included contributions from over 60 forestry institutions from all regions of the world.
In May 2004, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) agreed that GFIS should become a joint initiative. In response, IUFRO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Center for International Forestry Research and the United Nations Forum on Forests laid the ground work for further development of GFIS as a joint CPF initiative which was approved September 2004 at the 13th Meeting of the CPF in New York.
In August 2005, the new GFIS search service was launched the XXII IUFRO World Congress held in Brisbane, Australia. The GFIS gateway catalogued key information resources, such as news, events, publications and job vacancies supplied by information providers. Since 2007, there have been continual technological advances to GFIS carried out by Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) which features improved search tool and windows to the news, events, publications, forest-related jobs & educational resources.
Since 2007 there have been continual technological advances to GFIS carried out by Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) which features improved search tool and windows to the news, events, publications and job opportunities, and educational resources. [5]
In 2021 IUFRO decided to not to continue GFIS as a separate entity and instead focus on creating its own online information resources centre, so the www.gfis.net website was taken down. They have created a webpage describing the history of the effort. [6]
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates to "let there be bread". It was founded on 16 October 1945.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to promote economic cooperation and integration among its member states.
Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegal logging is a driving force for a number of environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and biodiversity loss which can drive larger-scale environmental crises such as climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is a non-profit scientific research organization that conducts research on the use and management of forests with a focus on tropical forests in developing countries. CIFOR, which merged with World Agroforestry on Jan. 1, 2019, is the forestry and agroforestry research center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a network of 15 research centers around the world that focus on agricultural research for sustainable development, working closely with governments and other partners to help develop evidence-based solutions to problems related to sustainable agriculture and natural resource management.
Forestry laws govern activities in designated forest lands, most commonly with respect to forest management and timber harvesting. Forestry laws generally adopt management policies for public forest resources, such as multiple use and sustained yield. Forest management is split between private and public management, with public forests being sovereign property of the State. Forestry laws are now considered an international affair.
The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) is a non-profit, non-governmental international network of forest scientists, headquartered in Austria. In 2019, IUFRO counted 630 Member Organizations worldwide.
The year 2011 was declared the International Year of Forests by the United Nations to raise awareness and strengthen the sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests for the benefit of current and future generations.
The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) is a high-level intergovernmental policy forum. The forum includes all United Nations member states and permanent observers, the UNFF Secretariat, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, Regional Organizations and Processes and Major Groups.
The International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA) is an international network of students in forestry-related sciences. It is a globally organized and locally operated student organisation connecting forest and related science students to peers, forest-related organisations, and policy platforms. The IFSA has 130 member associations in over 50 countries. IFSA is a non-political, non-profit, and non-religious organisation that is entirely run by students.
The World Forestry Congress (WFC) is the largest and most significant gathering of the world's forestry sector and it has been held every six years since 1926 under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, organized by the government of the host country. It is a forum for the sharing of knowledge and experience regarding the conservation, management and use of the world's forests, and covers such issues as international dialogue, socio-economic and institutional aspects, and forest policies.
Forest informatics is the combined science of forestry and informatics, with a special emphasis on collection, management, and processing of data, information and knowledge, and the incorporation of informatic concepts and theories specific to enrich forest management and forest science; it has a similar relationship to library science and information science.
The International Day of Forests was established on the 21st day of March, by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on November 28, 2013. Each year, various events celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests, and trees outside forests, for the benefit of current and future generations. Countries are encouraged to undertake efforts to organize local, national, and international activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns, on International Day of Forests. The Secretariat of the United Nations Forum on Forests, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization, facilitates the implementation of such events in collaboration with governments, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, and international, regional and subregional organizations. International Day of Forests was observed for the first time on March 21, 2013.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is an independent think tank founded in 1990 working to shape and inform international policy on sustainable development governance. The institute has three offices in Canada - Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Toronto, and one office in Geneva, Switzerland. It has over 150 staff and associates working in over 30 countries.
Multistakeholder governance is a practice of governance that employs bringing multiple stakeholders together to participate in dialogue, decision making, and implementation of responses to jointly perceived problems. The principle behind such a structure is that if enough input is provided by multiple types of actors involved in a question, the eventual consensual decision gains more legitimacy, and can be more effectively implemented than a traditional state-based response. While the evolution of multistakeholder governance is occurring principally at the international level, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are domestic analogues.
The Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe is a pan-European ministerial level voluntary political process for the promotion of sustainable management of European forests.
The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is a multi-stakeholder forum that promotes the ‘landscape approach’. to building landscapes that are productive, prosperous, equitable and resilient. It works to catalyze a movement that puts communities first in informing and addressing landscape-level issues. The GLF’s network connects more than 10,500 organizations from 185 countries.
AFR100 is an international partnership between African nations, financial interests both donor and business, technical organizations, and local interests which aims to restore more than 100 million hectares of land in Africa by 2030. It aims to have these efforts increase food security, combat poverty, and reduce the impacts of climate change within the continent. It is also part of the global Bonn Challenge to restore 150 million hectares by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. As of Nov 29, 2021 they have commitments of 127.77% of their target from 31 African countries.
Aster Afwork GebrekirstosFAASTWAS is an Ethiopian scientist and a professor of agroforestry at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
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