“Mexico has a special leadership that positions the nation as a key country where concrete strategies are being developed for the conservation of forest resources”.
This was stated by the director of the Division of Forest Policy and Resources of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Eva Müller, when launching the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2020.
In an interview, after participating in the inauguration of this meeting, which took place from March 5 to 9 in Toluca, state of Mexico, Müller said that our country was selected as the venue for this meeting for its natural forest vocation.
She said that the meeting aims to make the official launch of the Global Process of Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, but also attract the participating countries of the FRA, “to give them training from the Mexican experience.”
She highlighted the great experience that Mexico has in terms of forest inventories and in the development of forest assessment systems, which has been shared by Mexican professionals worldwide.
Hence, it has been chosen as the host country for the training of other nations, in order to guarantee the sustainable use of forests based on the UN’s 2030 Sustainability agenda.
In this regard, the undersecretary of Management for Environmental Protection of the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), Martha García Rivas Palmeros, stressed that Mexico is a privileged country for having almost every different terrestrial ecosystem in the world.
In fact, she recalled that the forest area of the country is greater than 138 million hectares, which represent 71 percent of the national territory.
Of this area, 47.5 percent, that is, 66 million hectares correspond to wooded vegetation, which is precisely where the evaluation of forest resources concentrates the efforts.
She stressed that now more than ever, forest resources have been revalidated, because they are part of the solutions to the great global problems that we are currently facing, such as poverty, food and climate change.
This is reflected in the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, in which the forestry sector has a very relevant participation, because it affects 12 of the 17 objectives and specifically in the number 15, which refers to the life of terrestrial ecosystems.
Therefore, she explained that Mexico participated actively in the integration of this agenda, convinced that coordinated national action is the best way to advance in the solution of problems and attention to development opportunities.
The Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) takes place every five years, through a process that analyzes the world’s forest resources and their changes to date.
In this regard, FAO celebrates 70 years of having initiated the FRA and is now launching a new online platform to report on the status and trends of global forest resources, now supported by the Google Earth Engine platform.
The tool will facilitate access to satellite images and other geospatial data, even for people without previous remote sensing experience, to monitor national forest coverage and changes in land use over time.
Source: mvsnoticias.com
