National Plan for Forest Cover Monitoring.

This National Plan for Forest Cover Monitoring (FCM) is a sectoral policy document. The overall goal of the FCM plan is: "To contribute to the strengthening of the National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) by generating information about changes in forest cover for Suriname that is reliable, up-to-date, accessible, understandable and transparent, serving multiple purposes amongst others optimized policy, policy implementation (e.g. national land use planning, sustainable management of the forest, REDD+) and law enforcement in the field (e.g. gold mining, mangrove forest)."
This FCM plan seeks to make forestry more productive and sustainable. In articular, as a high forest cover and low deforestation (HFLD) country, Suriname is interested in REDD+ as a tool for sustainable development and sustainable forest management. Forested developing countries are qualified to participate in REDD+ which is the United Nations mechanism for combating climate change by Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. REDD+ eligible activities also include conservation of forest carbon stocks, enhancement of forest carbon stocks and the sustainable management of forest. Forest cover monitoring is required for the REDD+ mechanism. The FCM Plan sets out the objectives as: 1. To strengthen national capacity on forest cover monitoring, in terms of human resources, scientific and traditional knowledge, tools and technology. 2. To generate documented, updated and validated data on forest cover and forest cover changes, ready to be used for multiple purposes. 3. To make data and information about changes in forest cover understandable and accessible to policy-makers, communities and other stakeholders. Each objective is formulated as a desired outcome. The outcomes include: National capacity on forest cover monitoring is strengthened and sustained in terms of human resources, scientific and traditional knowledge, tools and technology; Up-to-date data on forest cover and forest cover changes are generated, documented and validated, ready to be used for multiple purposes such as policy implementation, law enforcement, land use planning, sustainable forest management, biodiversity conservation and REDD+; etc.