Brazil

Abstract

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America, the 5th largest country in the world and one of those with the biggest biodiversity. Despite the importance of its forest resources, until recently the country did not have a national forest assessment to support public policies and the consequent strategic projects to promote the use and conservation of forest resources. Recognizing the importance of building a national system of forest information, the Ministry of Environment through the Brazilian Forest Service is implementing a participatory process to carry out a standard methodology for a national forest inventory (NFI-BR) with the participation of national and international institutions. The NFI-BR aims at producing information on forest resources to support the formulation of public policies of use, restoration and conservation. Among the motivations for the NFI-BR development, there is the strategic importance of forest resources at national and global scales. Data are being collect segmented by Brazilian States or regions and half of the country have already been inventoried. Data produced by the NFI-BR will be useful to improve national estimates of volume, biomass and carbon stocks of Brazilian forests. The NFI-BR will also provide updated information on the current condition of forests and its relation to other land use/land cover classes at country level.