From August 26 to 28, the city of Bogotá will host the First In-Person Workshop for the Definition of Variables for the Second Regional Report on the State of Forests in the Amazon Region. This event is organized by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Amazonia+ Program, funded by the European Union.
The workshop marks the beginning of a vital process to update and expand the information from the First Report published by ACTO in 2018. Over the course of three days, experts and technical representatives from the eight Amazonian countries will discuss and define the key variables that will make up this report, considered an essential tool for the sustainable planning and management of forest resources in the Amazon region. By the end of the workshop, not only will the 2018 data have been reviewed, but new Amazonian variables will also be incorporated.
This Second Regional Report, scheduled to be published in 2025, just like the first one, will use the same methodology as the FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), and is expected to serve as a reference for guiding policies and concrete actions in the Amazon. The process will include data collection and the identification of key information sources in each country, ensuring the document’s accuracy and relevance.
The workshop will also promote regional cooperation in forest management, providing delegates the opportunity to share experiences and address common technical challenges. The discussions will be grounded in the specialized knowledge of participants, who are familiar with the FRA process.
This effort is part of ACTO’s Regional Forest Program for the Amazon Basin, approved in 2021, with support from the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) within the framework of South-South Cooperation.
This Regional Report will be a key tool for Amazonian countries in their fight to preserve the Amazon rainforest, an increasingly urgent goal amid growing environmental and economic pressures. It will also contribute to consolidating information within the Forest Module of ACTO’s Amazon Regional Observatory (ORA).
It is noteworthy that this First Workshop has been officially approved by the government of Colombia as part of the Pre-16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) agenda of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). COP16 will be held in Cali, Colombia, from October 21 to November 1, 2024, with the goal of seeking solutions to critical global issues, particularly those related to “the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.”
