The official global FRA (Forest Resources Assessment) report is a periodic study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to collect, summarise and analyse data on the status, changes and trends in the forest sector on a global scale. FRA is the FAO’s main tool for monitoring forest resources in all countries of the world.
The report is published every five years and contains information on forest area, condition, management, use, biodiversity, climate change impacts, and the role of forests in social and economic development.
As part of the preparation of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 (FRA 2025), a regional seminar on remote sensing was organised by the FAO at the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN) in France.
Along with representatives from Italy, Spain, Sweden, France and Germany, a Ukrainian delegation took part in the event, consisting of:
▪️ Ihor Budzinskyi, Head of the Forestry and Forest Regeneration Department of the State Forest Resources Agency, national expert on forest resource assessment from Ukraine;
▪️ Andriy Shamrai, Head of the National Forest Inventory Centre of Ukrainian State Forest Management Planning Association “Ukrderzhlisproject”;
▪️ Vadym Bogomolov, employee of the Department of New Information Technologies of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Forestry and Forestry.
Participants mastered the FRA 2025 methodology using the Collect Earth Online (CEO) platform and completed practical tasks on photo interpretation of Landsat and Sentinel satellite images. The training covered methods for identifying land use types and changes in them, including examples from Ukrainian territories.
In addition to the technical part, the delegation was presented with the experience of France, Sweden and Germany in satellite monitoring of forests. As part of the field session, participants conducted training with a mobile application in the Bois de Vincennes.
Following the training, the Ukrainian team successfully passed the final exam and began photo interpretation of a sample of points in Ukraine. The data collected will be included in the official FRA 2025 global report, which will be presented by the FAO at the international level.
This participation is an important step towards Ukraine’s integration into modern international forest monitoring systems, improving the quality of national forest inventory and international reporting on forest resource assessment.
