Strengthening forest monitoring across Asia and the Pacific with Open Foris Arena

Field data collection and entry using the Arena mobile application.

18/08/2026

Reliable forest data is the foundation of sustainable forest management, climate action, and biodiversity conservation. As countries strengthen their commitments to sustainable development, international reporting frameworks, and access to forest and climate finance, the need for accurate, efficient, integrated and transparent forest monitoring systems is growing.

Across Asia and the Pacific, countries are investing in National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) and National Forest Inventories (NFIs) to better understand the status and trends of their forest resources, inform sustainable management, and meet national and international reporting requirements. At the same time, forest monitoring is evolving.

Developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Open Foris Arena is an open-source platform that supports the complete forest inventory workflow, from survey design and digital field data collection to data validation, analysis, visualization and reporting. By bringing these processes together within a single ecosystem, Arena helps countries improve the quality, consistency and accessibility of forest information needed for evidence-based decision-making.

Supporting the evolution of forest monitoring

While many countries in the region have made significant progress in digital data collection, challenges remain in managing increasingly complex datasets, ensuring data quality, automating analyses, and producing timely reports.

Forest agencies are also seeking practical ways to modernize existing systems, integrate historical databases, strengthen statistical analysis and streamline reporting for Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), and Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) processes.

This is where integrated forest information systems can make a difference. Instead of treating field data collection, data management, analysis, and reporting as separate processes, countries can increasingly connect them within a single workflow.

 From data collection to analysis and reporting

Open Foris Arena responds directly to these evolving needs by providing an integrated platform that supports every stage of forest inventory data management.

Beyond digital field data collection through Arena Mobile, the platform enables users to design surveys, validate and manage data, automate processing workflows, integrate statistical analyses using R, and produce standardized reports. Arena also supports multilingual surveys, database integration, and flexible deployment options, allowing countries to adapt the platform to their national contexts.

As countries transition from legacy systems and expand their digital forest monitoring capacities, Arena offers a scalable and interoperable solution that improves efficiency while maintaining high standards of data quality and transparency.

For the Philippines, Arena could help strengthen data analysis and use of NFI data for future planning and decision-making. Hanna Patricia Quilloy, from the Forest Management Bureau of the Philippines explained, “Currently our National Forest Inventory is primarily used for data storage, but we learnt that Open Foris Arena includes data analysis capabilities, for the Philippines we can explore this feature to produce more reliable data that we can use for future planning and decision making.”

In Bhutan, the focus is on comparing data from different NFI cycles. “After completing two NFI cycles, we plan to use Arena for managing data from complete NFI cycles within the same survey so we can compare the data from two different cycles within a survey,” stated Phuntsho Norby, Senior Forest Officer from the Forest Monitoring and Information Division in Bhutan.

Building regional capacity

Through FAO’s AIM4Forests programme and CBIT Forest project, forestry professionals from Bhutan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam recently strengthened their technical skills in using Open Foris Arena across the full forest inventory workflow.

The regional training emphasized practical application, enabling participants to gain hands-on experience in survey configuration, mobile data collection, data synchronization, quality assurance, statistical analysis, and reporting.

“Through this training course, participants learned how to master the Open Foris Arena platform. These skills will directly benefit countries as they implement National Forest Inventories and other field data collection campaigns,” stated Lauri Vesa, Forestry Inventory Expert, FAO.

Participants also explored how Arena can improve data quality throughout the entire forest inventory process, from field collection to reporting. The exchange of experiences among countries also highlighted Arena’s growing potential to support the National Forest Inventories, FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), NFMS, national forest policy implementation and broader forest management planning.

Looking ahead

The increasing demand for advanced analytical capabilities, automated reporting and integrated forest information systems demonstrates that countries are ready to move beyond digital data collection toward fully operational forest monitoring ecosystems.

FAO will continue supporting countries across Asia and the Pacific by expanding technical assistance, delivering advanced training on data processing, statistical analysis, R programming and reporting, supporting country-level deployment of Arena, and fostering a regional community of practice for peer learning and knowledge exchange.

By strengthening national capacities and promoting interoperable, high-integrity forest monitoring systems, Open Foris Arena is helping countries generate the reliable forest data needed to support sustainable forest management, climate action and informed policy decisions across the region.

More on this topic

Open Foris In Action https://www.fao.org/in-action/openforis/en

Arena – Open Foris

Course: Microlearning video series: Open Foris ARENA | FAO elearning Academy

AIM4Forests https://www.fao.org/in-action/aim4forests/en

Boosting transparency of forest data