United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), based in Rome, is the pre-eminent international body dealing with agriculture and forestry issues. The FAO has three main roles: 

The FAO Forestry Department is responsible for producing a wide variety of reports on forestry issues ranging from technical papers and case studies, analysis of data and policy papers. It also supervises on-the-ground program activities, particularly in developing countries involving research, the applications of existing research, provision of training and promoting better or alternative approaches to forest management. The FAO provides a forum for policy discussions on forestry issues in its biennial Committee on Forestry (COFO) and the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) meetings.

Australia contributes to FAO through participation in COFO and APFC meetings. Through the Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS), Australia actively contributes to the forest data collection and reporting activities of the FAO. BRS has been actively engaged in the FAO's Global Forest Resource Assessment.