Knowledge

There are a number of ways of packaging and disseminating knowledge related to forest management. These can take advantage of various ICT tools

Packaging Knowledge: Modern ICT enables knowledge products to be packaged in a variety of ways. These include:

Publications: These are more traditional knowledge product packaging (in hardcopy or pdf formats) that seek to pull together relevant information (see example for ICT use in forest and agriculture sectors or GIS use in Land Cadastre). These tend to be very useful but force a rather sequential reading approach, do not allow for too many “deep dives”, do not use multi-media, tend to be expensive to produce, and are difficult to keep updated.
Videos: A number of organizations have developed useful videos to support dissemination. It is important that in additional to more traditional ways to view these videos (on TV, at a special event, distributed on CDs, DVDs, or on USB memory sticks), they are also served up for online viewing. An inexpensive way to do this is to use existing free video hosting platforms such as the popular Google’s Youtube (which is reported to generate more than 4 billion views daily and acquire about 300 hours of new videos every minute) that also allow for embedding of the videos into websites, apps, and e-books. Examples:
- Channels:
- Videos:

Multi-media Infographics: Increasingly, innovative infographics (e.g. in the form of posters, multi-media videos, and interactive online infographics) are becoming excellent tools to communicate complex information in a visually appealing way that enhances communication.
Web Portals: Compiled information online has traditionally been served through online websites/web portals that can package complex content, usually as part of an organization’s outreach effort.
- WWF Deforestation Fronts
- Malawi Spatial Data Portal
- Forest Survey of India
- Global Forest Watch Open Data Portal
- USDA Forest Service FSGeodata Clearinghouse
- Los Angeles County GIS Data Portal
- CDP Open Data Portal
- UNEP Environmental Data Explorer
- Forest Carbon Portal
- Toolboxes (e.g. Sustainable Forest Management Toolbox from UN FAO)
- Toolkits (e.g. from PROFOR)
Radio:
Other Innovative Packaging:
- Mobile Apps: Spatial Agent
- E-Atlas: Indonesia
- E-books: Model Primer or this e-book
- Story Maps: Indonesia Forestry
- Telephone: Freedom Phone

Knowledge products: Knowledge products and their management have become an essential part of a country’s forest strategy for sustainable development of its forest resources. Knowledge management is the systematic acquisition, synthesis and sharing of insight and experience, and their systematic integration with factual statistical information and analyses. (Source: The strategic framework for FAO: 2000-2015). Basically, there are two types of knowledge: explicit and implicit knowledge.

Explicit knowledge is stored in books, publications, documents, project reports, databases and in digital format available on the internet, which is increasing exponentially. Following are some examples of explicit knowledge which is publicly available for use:

1. Forums

International Forestry Knowledge (KNOWFOR): This is a global program which intends to produce high quality global public goods in the forestry sector. UK – DFID has allocated £38 million from 2012 to 2017. It aims to provide policy makers and practitioners in developing countries and the international community with strategic knowledge, comparable evidence, reliable tools and systematic analysis on forests, trees and climate change. This program addresses an important gap in knowledge and evidence, as multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors scale up funding to tackle deforestation and restore degraded land within the framework of ambitious commitments to address climate change (UNFCCC) and support the post-2015 sustainable development goals (SDGs). KNOWFOR works through three main partners:

Program on Forests (PROFOR) is a multi-donor partnership located in the World Bank;
Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) an internationally renowned research centre and member of the CGIAR; and
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) hosts the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration.

Current KNOWFOR themes include the following:

Building the evidence and tools for achieving international forest landscape restoration targets;
Increase the understanding of the importance of forests,
Livelihoods and poverty interactions
Gender and forestry; and
mplementation challenges of REDD+, particularly benefit sharing mechanisms; corporate sustainability declarations (Zero-deforestation supply chains) and how these will be assessed.

KNOWFOR is intended to provide high quality original and synthesized knowledge products for a wide range of audiences in the forests and land use sectors, addresses the disjuncture between the supply and uptake of knowledge. KNOWFOR places strong emphasis on the enabling conditions and systems required to ensure that knowledge is useful, relevant, timely, and understood by its intended audience, and assess the extent to which the knowledge is used, has influence over decisions, and ultimately results in change.

African Forest Forum: The African Forest Forum is an association of individuals with a commitment to the sustainable management, wise use and conservation of Africa’s forest and tree resources for the socio-economic well-being of its peoples and for the stability and improvement of its environment. It works through its members and the Secretariat. Networking through electronic media which is the main mechanism for exchanging information, ideas and views. www.afforum.org

ASEAN Regional Knowledge Network on Forests and Climate Change (FCC): Deforestation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emission in developing countries. According to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), land conversion and deforestation in developing countries emits around 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon annually – the fourth highest cause of global emissions.

2. Publication Compilations

Forest science

Forest Science Database Cabi

Climate change

Research papers, journals, thesis and dissertations

3. Operational manuals and guides

Implicit Knowledge is the insight, experience and judgement stored in the human brain which is made available through specialized networks of professionals with relevant education, experience and skills. These individuals capture knowledge and make it available for the use of those interested in sustainable forest development. The following are a few examples of sources of tacit knowledge supported by appropriate communities of practice:

The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO ): IUFRO is a global network for forest science cooperation, and is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-discriminatory organization with a long tradition dating back to 1892. IUFRO unites more than 15,000 scientists in almost 700 Member Organizations in over 110 countries. Scientists cooperate in IUFRO on a voluntary basis. Its main mission is to advance research excellence and knowledge sharing, and to foster the development of science-based solutions to forest-related challenges for the benefit of forests and people worldwide. Its stakeholders are research organizations, universities and individual scientists, NGOs, decision making authorities, forest land-owners and other people who depend on forests. IUFRO attains its objectives by networking activities including the generation, exchange and dissemination of scientific knowledge, the provision of access to relevant information, and the assistance to scientists and institutions to strengthen their research capacities.
Forest Products Society: is a membership based international not-for-profit technical organization founded in 1947 providing access to the latest available knowledge by professionals on the most important issues facing the forest products industry – from standing tree to finished products. Its mission is to contribute to global stewardship by encouraging the social, economic and environmentally sustainable use of wood and other renewable cellolosic materials. According to its web-site, http://www.forestprod.org, it is the world’s largest network of forest products professionals, representing a broad range of professional interests such as private and public research and development, industrial management and production, marketing, education, government, engineering and consulting. The FPS Knowledge Base Beta is an interactive resource that highlights emerging thinking around today's most important issues in the forest products industry. The Society convenes technical conferences, produces several journals including the peer-reviewed Forest Products Journal and publishes books on topics of relevance to the forest products industry, facilitates exchange of information, encourages cooperation among individuals and organizations, and promotes standard test methods.
The Society of American Foresters: sets the standard in forest management, bringing science, best practice, and the best people together to actively shape the future of the profession.
The Association of British Columbia Forest Professionals is responsible for registering and regulating British Columbia's professional foresters and forest technologists (see video). The practice of professional forestry has been regulated since 1947 when foresters first agreed to help protect the public's interest in the province's forests in return for the exclusive right to practice forestry. Currently, it is the largest professional forestry association in Canada and the first to include forest technologists.

Other relevant examples of communities of practice include those for Forest Adaptation in Canada, the WOCAT network, TerrAfrica, and forest management decision support systems.