The OFAC of the COMIFAC - FAO – ITTO – CNUE/FAO - Forest Europe - Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests ("Montréal Process") is pleased to inform of their commitment to reduce the reporting that countries face in responding to regional and international commitments. Collectively, and in active cooperation with those who produce forest related date, they have the pleasure to formally announce the Collaborative Forest Resource Questionnaire (CFRQ).

The CFRQ has been developed by experts representing each of the organizations as well as a broad range of technical specialists with the aim of simplifying and harmonizing forest related reporting.

The CFRQ will be send to countries in early 2013 and will contain a subset of common variables included in the relevant questionnaires associated with FAO’s Global Forest Resource Assessment (FRA 2015), ITTO’s Status of Tropical Forest Management, Observatory for the Forests of Central Africa (OFAC) of COMIFAC, UN ECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section, FOREST EUROPE and Montréal Process Working Group. The result is that countries which report to more than one of these organizations and/or processes will provide the CFRQ variables just once – rather than several times as in the past. They believe that this initiative will substantially reduce the reporting burden on countries and at the same contribute to improving data consistency among the partner organizations.

Please download the Letter on “Reducing country burden for international forest related reporting“