Establishment of a national monitoring information
system for the effective conservation and sustainable management of Thailand’s
forest resources
Thailand
This proposal is a follow-up to the completed ITTO project 'Preparatory
Studies to Install a Continuous Monitoring System for the Sustainable Management
of Thailand's Forest Resources' (PD 2/99 Rev.2 (F)) which was co-financed by
Switzerland. The output was a set of forest-resources monitoring (THAIFORM)
procedures that included techniques for establishing monitoring points, collecting
and processing field data, and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis.
The project had a considerable success in involving stakeholders in the validation
of its objectives, as well as in staff training, elaboration of field procedures
for THAIFORM forest resources monitoring system, and in developing and field-testing
a data processing system and GIS.
The project involves the establishment of a national monitoring information
system to provide change and trend data on timber and non-timber forest resources
within the context of a national forest inventory. The information thus generated
will support informed policy decision-making by the National Park, Wildlife
and Plant Conservation Department of Thailand (DNP) and other agencies involved
in forest conservation and sustainable forest management (SFM). The data to
be gathered, when linked with socio-economic data, will provide a basis for
policy decisions and for measuring progress toward Sustainable Forest Management
using the national Criteria and Indicators (C&I) reporting. This second
phase proposal will deal with the following issues that were not addressed in
the first phase:
Setting up a national baseline forest resources monitoring system to provide
biophysical data from a network of permanent plots.
Linking the biophysical data from the forest resources monitoring with
socio-economic data from other relevant institutions.
Linking forest resource monitoring with the reporting of the national C&I
of SFM.
These issues were recommended by the Project final national workshop of stakeholders
and the final Project Steering Committee meeting.
ITTO project intervention is needed to assist Thailand set up the baseline
forest resources monitoring system within a relatively short time-frame (3 years),
to allow continuous monitoring. Without the project intervention, it would take
longer (7-10 years) to set up the baseliine system; the consequence is that
it would be impossible to measure nationally the changes and trends over time.
Once established, however, the monitoring system would be managed and financed
by DNP since the cost of plot remeasurement would be spread over time by staggering
the remeasurements.
The expected project outputs are a national baseline forest resources monitoring
system, a campaign to promote the use of the monitoring information, and a baseline
C&I report.
Implementing agency
National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department of Thailand
(DNP)
The Government of Thailand must ensure that the core staff
of the National Monitoring Information System for the Effective Conservation
and Sustainable Management of Thailand's Forest is maintained permanently
in order to manage the monitoring system and database maintenance. It
should further employ regional inventory field crews trained by the project
to conduct periodically plot re-measurements and analysis.
November 2006
In accordance with the project's progress reports submitted
in December 2005 and June 2006, progress in project implementation can
be summarized as follows:
Under Output 1, Activity 1.1 (Establishment of a national
network of monitoring points) and Activity 1.2 (Training and mentoring
of field crews) have been completed;
Under Output 1, Activity 1.3 (Collection of baseline
forest resources monitoring data), is under execution. Field data on
1,100 out of 1,300 planned PSPs (permanent sample plots) have been collected
and compiled;
Under Output 2, Activity 2.1 (Upgrading of existing database
and GIS system) and Activity 2.2 (Establishment of linkage with institutions
that collect socio-economic data) have been completed while Activity
2.3 (Linking of forest resource monitoring data with socio-economic
data) is under execution and Activity 2.4 has not been initiated; and
Out of 3 activities under Output 3, only Activity 3.1
(Development of template for C&I reporting) that has been completed,
the other 2 activities have not been started.
The project is progressing on track in achieving its planned
outputs and objectives within the sanctioned budget and time.
Mission Report
Gasana J. 2005: Summary
of the Report of the 2nd Steering Committee Meeting of ITTO Project
PD 195/03 Rev. 2(F) “To Establish a National Monitoring Information
System for the Effective Conservation and Sustainable Management of Thailand’s
Forest Resources”, 8th August 2005, Bangkok, Thailand
Presentation
Gasana J. 2005: Presentation
for the Steering Committee Meeting of ITTO Project PD 195/03 Rev.
2(F) “To Establish a National Monitoring Information System for the
Effective Conservation and Sustainable Management of Thailand’s Forest
Resources”, 8th August 2005, Bangkok, Thailand
