next I'm going to I'm going to give the stage Tower panelist is to start talking about how we can make how we can empower the underrepresented people uh to to with uh Forest research as well as the actions so I'm going to introduce our speaker Rocio condo who is a forest officer of the FAO and she's a leading the implementation of the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris agreement for the forestry division of the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations or FAO and recently she has coordinated a global project called cbit Forest which is the building Global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector and as a without further Ado razio is all yours

thank you very much Jin Jin I hope you can hear me akani can you confirm thank you uh thanks tinjin and the organizers for giving us the opportunity and space to interact with all with all of you through this hybrid event um I was happy to accept the invitation from Jin Jin and I have asked colleagues working on forests and climate action also to join me I believe that this collaboration and this Synergy will enrich the conversation we have start this session was prepared together with all the speakers um including Jin Jing and the students from the forest Advanced Computing and artificial intelligence lab and it was a wonderful experience to share learn and reflect together on how we are working all of us Towers empowering science and enriching diversity through our work we will share with all of you our personal and professional experiences and we hope this session can contribute to this series of webinars uh that will be held in the coming weeks and inspire all of you to take action on your area of work as part of the Academia Government research institution among others today with me uh Javier gamara who works also at the FAO and is part of the steering committee of the global Forest biodiversity initiative and it's also advisory committee of science I who will moderate the Round Table uh and to with me also Marcela Marie Carmen and Pilar and colleagues from the lab uh and so back to you Javier thank you okay thank you very much Rocio I hope uh people can hear me it's okay all right um so as an introduction basically I'm gonna be the moderator today I must say that although science I as the dean mentioned is mostly a platform designed to raise the voice of the underrepresented in scientific research we have today a set of panelists working on International Development uh we believe however that the science itself needs to raise its voice in the real world of policy formulation and implementation specifically that designed for mitigation and adaptation to climate change so to trigger the discussion on the topic of this session we do have some questions for our colleagues and we will also collect questions from the public and online which will be addressed at the end of the Round Table so please remember if you are online uh please put your questions in the Q a section rather than in the chat and if you are among the audience located in Purdue uh you can inform the People The Indian in this case for example uh supporting uh supporting other people's working as presentially of your intention to ask a question uh but the questions Round Table the question will be will come after the Roundtable so let's start then uh the first question is gonna go to rothio since he has already introduced herself FAO

uh but many people are usually unaware of whether the role of the United Nations and particularly of FAO in regarding climate action so what do you what do you think foul FAO is and what it does and uh how how are you specifically contributing to uh or you uh on fail in general contributing to climate action in the forest sector perfect oh you're muted with you thank you Javier also for alerting me um and let me let me go back to your question um the food and agriculture organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads International efforts to defeat hunger with uh 194 countries and the European Union uh file Works in over 130 countries worldwide file 6 uh seeks to support the 2030 agenda through the transformation uh to more efficient inclusive resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for better production or better Nutrition a better environment and a better life leaving no one behind power is recognized for its trusted advisory role at the international level regarding Developmental and environmental process including the United Nations framework convention for climate change and the Paris agreement as well as other International conventions and treaties I work as also Jin Jing mentioned in the forestry division under a cross-cutting work stream that aims to improve forest related data and information and capacities where activities are being implemented by the global Forest resources assessment and the national forest monitoring teams to respond to your question related to my contribution to climate action let me first provide uh you with some background information as you all know uh to come back uh to combat climate change and its impacts the Paris agreement represents a commitment by countries to limit the rise of the global average temperature therefore countries are required to provide reports on their emissions and removals and implementation efforts for mitigation and adaptation then Haynes transparency framework under the Paris agreement was created to track and report on those individual country commitments and over the last two years the forestry division of the FAO and the global environment facility partnered to implement the global cbit Forest project aiming to step up developing countries ability to collect analyze and disseminate forest related data to make for his data transparent and accessible in line with the transparency requirements under the Paris agreement we have involved uh 49 countries from Africa Asia and Latin American the Caribbean regions and more broadly the global network of national correspondence for the global Forest resources assessment from 186 countries and territories yeah despite the disruption of the covid-19 pandemic the project explored New Opportunities expanding its plan for virtual capacity development knowledge sharing and racing awareness through products and events such as webinars e-learning courses and massive open online course in multiple languages all this material is now available for free to anyone anywhere at any time back to you Javier okay thank you very much you are doing a huge amount of activities from from what I see a lot a huge amount of countries and a huge amount of projects uh involving it but let's see uh let's see what the oil panelists have to say uh Marcella Marcelo is working with Silva carbon as a greenhouse gas technical expert in the agriculture forestry and other land use sector so it's currently supporting a program actually aiming to Foster the role of women in the forest sector in Latin America so Marcella you you do work for supercarbon it is a technical program for the US government could you very surely explain uh the functions of silver carbo and which are the partners involved in the in silver carbon yes of course uh uh first thank you for the invitation and and my pleasure to be to be part of this panel um so silver carbon it's about a decade old interagency technical cooperation program of the US government which is dedicated to enhancing tropical forested countries capacity to monitor measure and Report carbon in their forest and other lands uh silver carbon is funded by the usaid and the Department of State and it is implemented by U.S federal agencies such as the U.S forest Service the U.S Geological Survey NASA NOAA the Smithsonian Institute as well as universities in the US and abroad I personally uh have been more involved in supporting countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region for short lack um some examples of uh the work we do here uh include strengthening their National Forest inventory supporting greenhouse gas results reporting to National and international entities improve approaches to assessing and projecting carbon fluxes as well as strengthening International collaboration among government partners and Academia under a south-south collaboration approach um also as you can imagine on many occasions we also seek and promote synergies with other International Partners such as FAO the United Fremont convention and climate change universities among others um one aspect that we have to come to notice is that despite that countries in the region have demonstrated significant progress in recent years regarding their Forest monitoring systems uh unfortunately as in other Technical and scientific Fields many of these advances have been also associated with gender bias gender bias can cause inequity in participation and access to training opportunities and job offers for women and other people with diverse sexual social and ethnic identities um and therefore about two years ago the Civil carbon program started working to investigate uh gender-based challenges in Forest carbon monitoring and Reporting with uh key countries that are Partners to civil carbon in in this sense we have begun exploring new activities aimed to continue to supporting countries in their efforts to create sustainable Landscapes and and contribute to Global initiatives and climate change so just data Parts agreement that was mentioned before by Rocio while we also uh want to explore include gender responsive implementation approaches um so just briefly and I'm happy to provide more information in the follow-up follow-up questions uh in the past uh we're doing this year we've conducted a quick diagnosis uh introductory training courses on gender bias as well as a regional webinar gender forest and carbon intersection back to you Javier thank you thanks marfella no I think it's awesome that you are engaging in this program uh regarding regarding gender biases and particularly in developing countries in this case in Latin America uh you will uh the audience will see that today our panelists are mostly from Spanish-speaking countries and they are women so I think that is uh that is also a good opportunity uh to to to ask to ask some of some more Partners about some of these issues that probably touch them even personally uh so our third our third panelist is uh is Marie Carmen Ruth uh C is she's actually based in in Panama uh she's a red pass technical expert and a focal point uh for the Latin America and the Caribbean region within FAO uh Maricel means so the question goes to you as a fact as an effort focal point on the ground on the ground in Latin America what do you think makes the region special special in terms of action in the forest sector for climate mitigation

hi good morning thanks thanks for inviting me I'm very happy to be part of this webinar and based on the question you asked Javier well FAO I just first going to start about like how is it feel Works in in the region in Latin America and the Caribbean which is like they they Center their work and on Regional initiatives that are defined by governments every two years and that are based on the needs of 33 countries that participate in this Regional Conference this conference comprise Ministers of Agriculture and high level officials of of member nations from same geographic region and discuss challenges and priorities and that are related to food and agriculture um and but specifically now the current Regional initiatives are sustainable agricultural system which seeks to create and promote um greater physical and economic access to diversify a nutritious diet for all people in the region and also the the second is prosperous and inclusive rural societies that stimulate the development of new economic opportunities in lagging territories and the terror initiative is sustainable and resilient agriculture this is this initiative is where my my work is based on a the work with forests and climate change and community-based Forest monitoring and is focusing the preparation also on red initiative that is red is a is a way to mitigate emissions by reducing forests the first station Forest degradation while fostering conservation of forests increased carbon stocks and sustainable Forest management just also to to to clarify that when we say sustainable and resilience agriculture we refer to agriculture in a broad sense so that includes agricultural practices livestock fisheries and Forestry activities but then this holistic approach make it responsive to climate change at the landscape level and an integrative in in an integrative way where Forest is view as part of the local livelihoods so um specifically working in with forests uh and climate change in Latin America have been led to include local communities why because indigenous people are key stakeholders of the stewardship of forests in Latin America where the territories comprise 30 of carbon storage in the forest so they make a key role to how deforestation and Forest degradation in the region therefore governments to achieve their goals in you know for for the United Nations framework for Convention of climate change mitigation an adaptation that you have to consider local communities as active participants where capacity building is needed for managing forests sustainably at the community level and strategy to incorporate national and local action

thank you very much thank you very much government so now now we all know what our panelists are doing and the line of work that they do and uh and uh and I would like now then then to to see uh the specifics of of what what what is the presence of what is the presence of the situation of uh regarding underrepresented communities in general and also uh regarding the regarding the the issues regarding uh open science and uh and transparency of an open data you are an expert actually on transparency so what what do you think FAO is doing right now to instant device the dialogue between science between decision makers and international organization foreign

for the question and let me say that Partnerships are at the heart of fao's Mission to help build consensus and of course the effectiveness and credibility of the organization as a policy making Forum uh and multilingual Center of excellent knowledge and Technical expertise depends to a considerable degree on its ability to work and develop strategic Partnerships with governments Civil Society the private sector Academia research centers and cooperatives making use of each other's knowledge and comparative advantage of course let me share with you all some examples of the key role Academia on the research centers as well as International Organization had for fko based on the work we have recently implemented through the cig Forest project and and there are sort of levels I I wanted to to break out some of the examples in levels so at the global level uh partnered in uh with key Global stakeholders has been fundamental and for example um as also Marcella was mentioning uh partnering with the United Nations framework convention on climate change uh has been a key to ensure consistency of key messages When developing knowledge products related to the transparency framework uh we have involved the UNF Triple C since the initial steps of the design and the preparation for example of an e-learning course on Forest and transparency under the Paris agreement which is now available actually in six un languages and it's open to anyone anywhere at any time with the possibility to get a digital batch certification uh day learning based uh training approach combined with providing material in multiple languages promoted wider stakeholder engagement inclusivity and the number of people engaged created better conditions uh for a stakeholder dialogue and learning and this is I think a key lesson learned for us we have also involved Academia to ensure the most uh up-to-date knowledge is included when we develop any product and recently we have involved for example the gothing and University in the development of the national forest inventory e-learning models which are useful for planning implementing and Reporting National Forest inventories these models are now more accessible than ever before I assume there are many students in the audience today uh and through the project activities uh we have involved the international courses Students Association itsa by allocating adult places to for them to participate in our capacity building activities during the different editions of the massive open online course on Forest and transparency where we will able to bring around 2 000 participants from 148 countries moving to the regional level uh we have contributed to South South knowledge exchanges for example we work with countries in Latin American and the Caribbean region and this process has led to the publication for the first time of a book called National Forest inventories of Latin American and the Caribbean Tower the carbonization of forest information this is the result of the work of 21 countries of this region that have combined their efforts to compile review and illustrate their experiences in on implementing National Forest inventories as well as identifying common points and difference in definition design methods and estimation protocols applies in those countries we will continue to cement networks regionally and with new partners such as Academia to ensure sustainability and transparency of Hollywood reporting last but not least at Country level we have facilitated multi-stakeholder processes to ensure participatory decision making and information sharing recently we have worked with pilot countries uh from different from the three regions uh in order to support them enhancing their National Forest monitoring systems so in this context women and men have contributed to identify their needs and gaps and plan to work towards improving their National Forest monitoring system back to you Javier there's a few so it does look indeed like the uh dialogue Partnerships at different skates are seen fundamental uh toward this aim that we're having on on making uh inclusive uh Forest monitoring systems um but let's go let's deal let's go a little bit deeper into that we are today Marcella witnessing the empowerment of underrepresented communities both in science and in government action what has been specifically in your experiences as a gender expert uh we we're having your experience in regards to racing awareness of gender related issues in a highly specialized Technical Community uh including of course the lgbtqa plus community

um thank you and first to clarify as mentioned before that civil carbon has mainly a goal or a focus on providing capacity building and promoting technical exchanges on issues regarding monitoring and Reporting Forest carbon emissions according to the needs communicating To Us by our government Partners however over the years it has been evident that there is a gender imbalance in the number of women men and other identities that are our technical counterparts in most of the countries where we work and that we notice that this imbalance in the participants that attempt work capacity building events or other similar activities we conduct a regional level so in 2020 the Civil carbons implementation agencies initiated efforts to identify what are the most common challenges and barriers that uh in particular women in partner countries face at the professional level that are related to gender bias as well as understand what strategies have been most helpful to overcome these so that our support to force carbon monetary and Rapport in activities also contributes to reducing gender gaps at least try to do some initial steps on towards that goal um at Silver carbon we realized that this topic have not been discussed at least not in our network of Partners and although more government institutions have a gender Department many times it is not linked necessarily to the technical teams so in this specific case of the lack region the Civil carbons U.S forest Service team started activities towards better understanding our partners needs and perspectives on gender related issues as well as identifying which training modalities would be the most preferred by them in the future um and so in June of this year we for example launch a quick diagnostic with support from gender Experts of Colorado State University and the questions we asked in this diagnostic were to basically start understanding where are the women in this field and what are their barriers that's it's an initial step and this activity in itself was the beginning of a process of positioning this topic in our Network so to give you some highlights of the results we achieve with this quick diagnostic we got responses from about 80 people from 20 countries uh 58 identify themselves as women 40 as men and to prefer to percent prefer not to answer and we got responses from participants from Academia ngos however the vast majority were people working in government institutions at the level of specialized technicians or program coordinators we asked the participants to share information about these challenges by gender and group their responses within more General categories for example the main challenge mentioned by women was about the difficulty of exercising leadership other relevant challenges where discrimination and harassment the balance between work and personal life the salary lab as well as the low appreciation of their contributions at times although in smaller numbers there were also women who responded that they had no obtain counter any gender related challenges

um we also as I mentioned we have participation from from male colleagues and when we analyze the answer share of our our colleagues about the obstacles associated with their gender identity the vast majority did not identify any a few mentioned the effect that gender quotas for example can have when there are fee spaces for representation so we recognize that the current state of gender equality within the forest monetary reporting Community varies among countries um however from the responses to this survey it was clear that participants felt that adding gender related activities in is relevant for future capacity building efforts and for example in addition to recognizing that women face different obstacles compared to those of male colleagues most of this survey respondents felt that gender identity does not limit the task for any given field of work and most participants and I'm saying like men female male and and others and may that men have some role in Improvement of the currency patient regarding gender Maps so to conclude uh we believe that raising awareness and increased need for sensitivity and knowledge about gender inequality facilitates the exchange of ideas improves Mutual understanding and develops skills for societal change for example today we have heard from Rocio and Mary Carmen about transparency of force data and collaboration with indigenous communities these topics can also bring benefits to the inclusion of gender discussion and showcase a role of different actors in supporting the enhancement of forest monitoring systems so in this sense we are very interested in working collaboratively seeking to establish a community of practice to address issues as relevant as climate change and Forest conservation from a more Equitable perspective and I hope at the end of this today's session we can provide more information about this new effort thank you thank you Marcella it has been a very integrated answer I would say uh but uh okay you have most of the answers have been about about gender issues uh but uh there are some other actors that are basically very very fundamental in in regards to forests that that is the the local communities and the indigenous communities um foreign monitoring actually is traditionally an expensive Enterprise that is usually taken by either researchers or Timber companies or governments in recent years in recent years however local and Indigenous communities have taken more proactive roles in monitoring their forest in an effort to incentivize the stewardship of their Forest lands the standard Inland tenure and ownership is critical in climate change mitigation particular particularly in Latin America in fact so Mary Carmen could you mention some evidence of the use of monitoring tools or systems to strengthen land tenure yeah no thanks Javier definitely indigenous people on local communities are key stakeholders to manage forests so in order to countries to find ways to reduce deforestation and poor degradation they need to implement activities with local communities so in that in that way if you have implemented Community Based Forest monetary initiative focusing on building capacity of members of indigenous communities and local communities of the region to empower them to manage their their territories so the the training have included for example using drone preparation of flying plans image processing of those drones geo-referencing high resolution mapping managed databases on Forest information and for example even including how to do some Forest inventories in their territories so the main objective of this capacity building was to identify challenges changes in in Forest covers putting deforestation and poor degradation process to mitigate the impact of climate change but then during this this process we work um also um we with governments and other partners that were having similar goals that so this collaboration have allowed us about sharing the course of activities for example as you were talking about funding and also allowed to promote like a long-term support of these activities to this the local community that we were doing the capacity building so important one of the things that is important for the sustainability of these approaches is that do it in the using a free priority for consent process so this process uh it's been a computer taking into consideration inclusive participatory approach or views and opinions of community members and directional authorities were considering then these activities were constructed like together based on the needs of the community and so therefore the action that we were making paid the way to other initiative reflecting major ownership by indigenous people of the using their national resources associated with their land so one of the things too is that um because of not only is the importance of managing their land also um is land tenure so in in this way uh we were also complement um Forest monitoring tools capacity building with giving socializing the voluntary guidelines of responsible governance of of tenure that is there's guidelines developed by fio that seeks to improve the governance of land tenure features and forests around the world focusing particularly on local communities so one of the things that I you know like in the the previous um the the the previous uh talk last last week was last week or um that about they were talking about carbon offsets Initiative for example in the in the country that we have intervened they they haven't been the focus um on the way so they will apply that for example the tools that we were teaching them um however most indigenous communities that we have worked with are more concerned on how safeguards are addressed and that the free priority for consent follow is follow while addressing RED project for example also uh based on the building the capacity local communities can ensure that the distribution of the benefits of the co at the country level is according to the contribution and protecting forests in their territories so one of the things that some of the achievement of this capacity building is a clearer definition of land boundaries for example elaboration of Community Land Management plans early warning system for deforestation and for degradation guidelines to make claims um the approval of local concept of regulation of internal regulation establishing land use and sustainable management of foreign resources also strengthen press governance and creating trust and another key result is that some of the trained indigenous technicians are now having their own organization and offering capacity building and support in inmate mapping indigenous territories in in their own country and in in also uh internationally so one of the things I want to you know like when Marcela was talking about gender we have you know tried to make sure that the capacity will include both men and women and sometimes they they they will we will have a good um you know call for the beginning of the training but however the we still have had the challenge to maintain women so they're trained but they they they they they don't participate all the time or they don't keep working on uh on on a community-based forest monitoring so this is definitely still a challenge uh that we need to to see how we we can we can foster you know like the the participation uh of women in these activities thank you very much Martella no I it is surprising it is it is amazing to see that while some of us uh try to give importance to carbon or by or biodiversity in many of these communities what they really appreciate is is uh uh to be able to manage uh control their lands Steward their lands and uh and and it's basically of on it's based on a relationship of trust of trust and respect with them right uh so it's very it's very interesting to see all of this we have looked so far into the past and into the uh and the present but uh now now we're gonna dare to to to go deep deep dive a little bit into the future with our you know with our panelists so Rocio back to you we are now in the in a in the in the era era of big data and and the availability of forest related data is also becoming widespread to to scientists in general however many governments are still very reluctant to share their Force data openly to the public what are do you think the reasons for this apparent lack of transparency and one can we all do to improve it thanks for this question and happy to share the experience and lesson learned from the cbit forest project uh we have worked with pilot countries from the three regions from Asia Africa Latin America and the Caribbean actually to understand their interest in working toward open data in the forest sector we have uh worked together with them to populate uh where it's called the forest inventory data collection under the files corporate food and agriculture Micro Data catalog these collection contains Micro Data metadata related information on Forest inventories across different countries how on countries increasingly rely on Micro Data for monitoring and evaluation tailoring programming and policy interventions conducting research and monitoring important development Trends such as sustainable development goals in this contexts we have supported countries improving their quality of the data sets as well as help them to Define which were the variables they want to openly share through the food and agriculture macro data catalog platform among other activities of course at any point in time country counterparts take decisions on which data are to be open and often they prefer to distribute them from their own platforms which we also support in building so some of the Lessons Learned I can share today is that there is often an animation reluctance by countries to share Forest data motivated by fears of illegal login or simply uh losing control of their data countries need more incentives to transparency and donors could play a role alone secondly there is a lack of an initial data hosting infrastructure which is often also a deterrent in countries to open data there is still a lack of capacity to develop and maintain those data related platforms last and not least also institutional forest and legal expertise is needed when talking about open data with countries particularly in circumstances where sensitive data disclosure policies are involved please check our publication Tower open and transparent Forest data for climate action and if you are interested also to learn more about these uh food and agriculture Micro Data catalog join us in two days thank you back to you Javier thank you thanks very much um uh so yeah that is that is a very interesting point to race uh regarding because because in the end we are we are here talking to an audience that is uh somehow interested also in the in this uh new platforms Innovation platforms like a science site for example uh so it is it is good to talk about about data and about open data in particular um I want to remind actually the audience before we continue uh that we are going to go relatively soon to the question question and answer session and uh please I encourage you to to to put your questions in the Q a uh tab uh in case in case you have questions for later I think I think the the the discussion today is very interesting and I'm pretty sure there can be potentially lots of questions out there um so please uh going to go into the into the Q a and write your questions Marcella uh we are seeing today a largely a big push for climate actions all over the world and particularly also by young women from underrepresented geographies how do you see then the future role of women in decision making and do you see a gender inclusion in science and government in the in the global South enhancing in the context of foreign Forest monitoring and Reporting

uh sounds great good question yes uh okay so thank you Javier let me first mention that the discussion around the role of women in this context uh does not only refer to divide in the world between female and male issues in addition to recognizing A diversity of sexual identities it is also important to acknowledge the multiple Dimensions that constitute gender that ultimately shapes individual opportunities and experiences and that includes social class religion um cultural backgrounds like marikame was mentioning and of course age for example based on the responses from our quick survey that I mentioned before um and regarding the the challenge of stereotypes to exercise leadership some of the female colleagues mentioned different personal characteristics and live circumstances that affected them on the level of resitivity or the weight given to their proposals because they were young or on the high pressure to perform put on them by male colleagues as well as from other female colleagues because they were mothers so to advance the understanding of gender perspective and experiences in decision making within our community in the past weeks we conducted a webinar series on gender force and carbon um Rocio participated in that seminar so we're very thankful with her and we did this seminar in collaboration with Colorado State University and the UNF Triple C to reflect on some of the challenges and opportunities that exists to integrate a vision of equity in the technical scientific activities of the forestry sector and to share experiences of women in management positions and their important contributions to Forest conservation and climate change mitigation and to identify recommendations on how to integrate the gender perspective within our community and of course Inspire younger Generations so um uh silver carbon is not a program I want to say this also uh that uh 60 become a reference in terms of the theories and practices regarding gender however we are interested in helping mainstream and gender uh with our partners and showcase the work and contributions of those that are underrepresented in this field so to answer your question on the future role of women in decision making in the context of course monitoring reporting within the lack region I would like to share some initial findings on the advances as well as the remaining challenges that 16 panelists and other 200 participants from 20 countries here with us during this recent webinar series so first um women are active protagonists in Forest carbon science and climate change negotiations and in the sense I don't have I don't see any reason for not advancing and consolidating this important role in the future second men and women have the same level of technical skills and professional performance even so we heard from our panelists about biases that affected career choice or assignment of tasks for example there is usually less participation of women in specialized areas such as remote sensing and there are even papers about documenting this this aspect um in many face challenges in terms of the recognition of their contributions particularly in predominantly male sectors outside of their institutions in addition uh some women face barriers to professional development especially when it comes to having children and taking care of them in fact women continue to have double or triple roles including caretakers or family and other household duties and according to the U.N statistics even women in science tend to have a big gap in their careers even when they get to tertiary education because of reproductive roles so maybe some of the reflections that maricarming was just sharing about the work with indigenous Community has to also do with this uh reproductive roles of women third although there is progress in formalizing gender Equity processes in several countries that we work with in the region of Latin America challenges remain in terms of access to jobs due to gender bias for example about pre-judgments regarding the physical resistance that women can have for field work in National Forest inventories we also heard from the audience about challenges faced by young women while questioning their emotional intelligence or about harassment from older people I also want to mention that in all of the sessions we had with the panelists there was also cement the the panelists mentioned also stories about the importance of support for the development of women's professional career and in this sense two major points were mentioned repeatedly to promote and retain women in this area first uh continued support from mentors within institutions which encourage not only the professional development but also help us role models and and and our supporting this development throughout their careers secondly the institutional flexibility and infrastructure to allow for example Child Care during the work working day as well as the support of their Partners or other members of their family for the distribution of tasks that are generally attributed to women finally um I want to emphasize that people do not have to be a gender expert to actively contribute to the elimination of gender bias within the highly this highly specialized technical area and take a leadership role and before Javier you introduced me as a gender expert I'm not and and but I'm very happy that I'm starting to reflect on these aspects in in in trying to to create some discussion around these aspects within my community so we consider that this last reflection is key to triggering many of the changes that we still need to implement as a community and we believe that younger Generations will be able to use all of the knowledge being produced in this area the technological tools and platforms such as science I and their evident interests to address social inequities in environmental issues will accelerate the changes required to empower the unrepresented so um with that I want to thank you again for for the opportunity to continue this dialogue and last but not least I would like to also mention that at the end of this session we will be sharing links to our social media civil currents social media as well as the link to a YouTube channel in which you can checked on the uh this uh webinar series that we organize on gender forcing car thank you again thank you very much thank you very much uh okay we're gonna go to the last last question before the Q a session you can be relatively short here uh the final question is basically science is a platform that aims to build science collaboration networks focusing on raising the voice of underrepresented groups in research in Forest monitoring Latin American countries have recently established a collaborative Network towards the exchange of experiences behind Forest inventories are there you think lessons to learn from this from this south-south Corporation and how can how could we open this government-led initiatives to downscale towards researchers across the globe foreign

yeah so cooperation in general have been you know like very instrumental to empower the national and local level and where you know like it's always peer-to-peer exchanges provide a good platform for sharing experience on how they overcome challenges that might be similar within countries and for example social Corporation especially for Forest inventories help identify funding for example for doing skill work or some laboratory work also um giving her a barium support for example exchanging Botanical examples within a barium sharing allometric equation within countries that share similar species distribution so so there's some some are those are kind of like some activities that have benefit from this South South it changes um but but I can talk about also other type of collaboration and recommendation to the scientific community and for example establishing networks between universities and governments to be able to apply scientific knowledge and this will help countries to find solutions to manage forests and respond to climate change and converting it to policy this could be done doing internships with governments and institutions and even local organizations and so the other another um a recommendation could be also you know creating interdisciplinary programs um where there are some mandatory courses for grad students of different departments for example I I benefit for an international program where nature-based Solutions and environmental policy courses were taken by grad students from different programs like agriculture biology environmental science geography political science so this allowed the interaction between students with different views and provide integrative solutions to climation challenges and and so this in the long term also developed into interdisciplinary and inclusive collaboration within grad students that will be at the end at the long run focus on their professional experience um so also even like providing knowledge transfer to governments and local communities that could support country delegations in the negotiation of certain topics in the convention of the parties of the conventional biological diversity in the United Nations framework for climate change for example so there are many possibilities that interactions can be fostered and where scientists definitely can have a big impact to make it science more inclusive to to governments for example

okay thank you thank you very much uh so I think we have finalized now the the the round table and we would like to go uh very quickly through some of the questions that the audience have formulated and I still don't feel that the first question might go for you uh I think the the I I don't know the first question I think seems to come from Laura Laura Marquez I think that she says that she's working on a project using European NFI and would be really interested including NFI from Latin America and the Caribbean she's asking whether you are willing to share the data in specific variables and if so which is the procedure to follow to contact and work with the data providers and she thank you for for the amazing work that you're doing thank you uh thank you Laura and uh thank you for for this question so um probably Laura refers to and Finn which is this European Network I assume that uh and actually FL is um uh learning very much from the already existing uh National Forest inventory Network so happy that you have joined us um what I can say is that um the NFI Network in Latin America it's a process that actually started some some years ago and it has been sort of Consolidated and actually um last week in Panama and Marie Carmen can confirm uh there has been the consolidation of a formal consolidation I would say of this NFI luck um what I can do you can I would put my my contact in the in the chat so maybe you can write me an email and I can put contact with the with the person that is coordinating this process in a with the network and what I can also do is share with you I I think we already did it in the chat but I will uh share with you the Spanish and the English version of the of the book we have developed uh where you can get information of these countries and hope that that helps thank you

okay we have another question and I think that is gonna go for you Marcella uh it's by orally and she says that uh she asks what could be the reasons for women and other not six males to bail out of the learning process in forestry is this already researched do you believe this to be psychological uh meaning the feeling of not belonging in this male dominated world or or due to other duties such as family out of fear basically what can we do to counter this okay today firstly we have to know what is the reason but what is your personal advice based on that experience

yes uh and thank you for the question I actually in this last part of the the round of questions I try to answer some of this um within within this particular Community working in Forest monitoring there hasn't been really a lot of research uh regarding what happens uh with this um the reasons for women uh to bail out of the learning process but it's not very different from what has been documented I'm I'm pretty sure and based on the survey and the interactions with our colleagues from what it has been documented in other communities within let's say the environmental sector and it has to be with the the things that you already mentioned um first uh also they starting with this election of the career many women would feel that they're not capable of of pursuing careers that has a lot of math um and conduct very thorough analysis like I was saying before the remote sensing analysis and and I and I've seen in recent years more literature about how to promote that more women uh choose those type of careers but then once they're in in this type of fields of course uh the what I was mentioning before that the different roles that women play um in in taking care of their family and when they decide to have children Etc without having the support of their families or their Partners or having institution that allows for example in some countries that men also take paternity leave not only women without having that kind of support women will tend to Simply stop their careers professional development maybe still maintain their work in the institutions but not necessarily pursue something with high responsibilities for example so um I I was reading recently and and listening to a panel on climate change and gender and the one of the key points was about uh leadership and also within our community we have been requested to to promote more training on leadership skills and that's important and and that's very uh useful but without the reflection that this other panel was doing at the end is that without having making important changes at the institutional level uh just having those trainings are not enough uh to retain uh the women so changing the structure is a culture behind the these institutions I hope I have answered thank you Marcella so it seems to be mostly an Institutional and cultural process uh that needs to go on uh we have another question and that my goal for you Mary Carmen it is from Carol Colfer uh she's interested to hear what experience uh you have had or FL has had with every disempowerment or marginalization and specifically she mentioned that that there are other ethnic groups the uh that sometimes maybe look down you poem by others and she was wondering whether they whether they are recognized at all whether that fact is recognized at all in in your line of work guys careful that question uh yeah definitely the the way so we have been you know evolving the the way we have approached uh this capacity building and empowering local communities um for example one of the the first integration that that was in Panama and all for example the the communities that participate were able to speak Spanish so they were having their own language but they were able to speak Spanish and we include all of them but however then when we started working in other countries we we encounter language problems you know like that we were not they were not speaking Spanish or they were not speaking the language at the you know like the of the trainers so so for example in one of the things I saw in in the case of Paraguay for example they were speaking this was warani they were not speaking Spanish they would they knew a little bit but you know like understanding the the capacity building so one of the things that we did two things first having a local you know people that that they were translators that will help us in in the in in the in the capacity building and second we did peer-to-peer exchanges so what what's happened had happened is that some of these groups that have not have been able to participate in in many different capacity building is that they feel that they are not able to do stuff so and then the way that they feel more encouraged is by having a peer to show them that they can do it so because if I come from FAO like oh no this woman you know like she's not I'd identify with her so then it's harder like it's like it creates a barrier and so we we notice that having those interactions have helped and because actually I was recently like a month ago um I received a WhatsApp but one of the you know like the the technician in infinite for example they were like but again what now I'm training others so it was amazing and and so I see and they were just sending me pictures of him training all I mean he this guy that we helped uh they were now training so it's it's been like a more like tried to be inclusive or in their language and also that they feel part of it by having peer-to-peer exchanges okay thank you very much so it's uh so the ways ways to provide always opportunities to people and and yeah so that uh that's that's fantastic um so I think we have a little time uh for people in the audience uh in in presentially in in Purdue uh so um I don't know uh exactly how we're gonna do it because of the sound but let's try to see people have questions um yes can you hear hear us from this end yeah great so uh I have been talking to the audience and uh we have a common question for all of the panelists here today is actually we are so glad to see so many women scientists and women uh of stuff from FAO as well as soon carbon and apparently you are doing so great and so we were wondering since uh so since we have so many colleagues who are women and uh and working from FAO and the silver carbon does it mean that uh both the FAO and also the the United States Forest Service are paying more attention to employing more women and also non-binary General people in at in their Workforce

okay whoever wants to go first

maybe I can start uh and I think um probably um um I believe maybe I can talk from from my experience I think they are given a equal opportunity so I think uh now that is the reason uh probably I I can be coordinating our Global product and so this is thanks to the opportunity I was given uh to uh to do so so um that is my experience at least uh right now back to you Javier and also I wanted to like even like because I was talking about FAO and then I will let Marcela so the other thing too not only try to give you opportunity but also the the panel selecting panel for for uh for hiring recruiting new Consultants or officers have to be gender balanced so so that's also had I think have a um increase you know like I have a better you know the evaluations you know like it's always a health having the abuse and I think that also have been a key for it

thank you yes I will Echo what Rocio and Mary Carmen said in terms of uh there are policies internal policies that will promote diversity inclusion within our organizations I I'm very glad that this is uh something that I guess for a service is [Music] um supporting what I what I think is uh yes sometimes making the this type of mainstreaming something uh together with our partners is a challenge sometimes uh and and but yes um having this type of discussions like this type of panels and I see more and more and now I don't know if it's because of the pandemic that I see uh so many things available online uh webinars uh but I'm so glad to see that there is an increase in interest in many of the different types of communities around the forest sector so yes okay so uh thank you very much for your answers uh uh I don't know uh the Indian if there is uh any other question uh from from there okay uh so what um I think it has been a great discussion I think I have I have enjoyed a lot listening to our colleagues here and I'm very glad to see I have my the screen in front of me and uh I only see women working in research like like Acadian and Kita from Purdue I see our panelists here I see pillar that is supporting us at all times and I think it's great to have it here for some reason they wanted me a male to be the moderator but uh I can't tell you that I I didn't I I was refused until they forced me um no okay so um I just wanted to summarize basically uh the whole webinar and you have seen that the the patterns here are are all working in international development organizations however science I is a platform mostly focused on researchers but still I think it was a great idea by janjin benjinjin to invite the International Development uh organization people so so that we could we we could provide uh uh a bit of a vision from the from the from what is usually seen as more the the the action field the live action film what the the implement the actual implementation in the field uh so basically the audience can can see whether there are scenarios with their commonalities between uh well in the audience are researchers between them between their own fields and and what we are doing because I think that this dialogue between science and and and and decision making is is sorry now more than ever now that we have shorter or shorter time to to solve some of the biggest tremendous issues that we have and uh we I have a I have a prepared a little bit of a a short uh number of conclusions from the webinar that we can take all home uh with us so if you don't mind I'm gonna read them to you I Was preparing them before so uh the first conclusion that I take from the webinar is that inclusiveness and transparency are fundamental to forests and climate action second one I would take I would say that it's a collaborative Partnerships from all the way from governments to individuals at different scales are key to tackle younger age ethnic imbalances and provide equal opportunities to all I would say also based on the discussion that things like elements like uh or or measures such as mentorships or innovation platforms Innovation tools or or new platforms such as science for example could be stepping stones towards achieving social and environmental Equity little by little

um Academia also Academia and governments we think that must play a role in creating incentives towards open science and towards information sharing and finally uh to close down the conclusions I say we must all contribute to defining possible paths towards achieving inclusiveness while the goal is yet not in a reach we must all work together that path and I think that's uh that's all for today and I don't know if dindin or akane want to close the event but it has been a pleasure for me and I hope for all the participants uh to be here um any words any final words yeah uh we want to thank all the panelists here for the wonderful talks I know I want to thank all the participants of today's uh webinar for joining us and it's a reminder that we have two more workshops coming up and uh we look forward to continue hearing from you and we're working with you on the white paper as well and uh according do you have anything else uh no I just wanted to remind about the white paper as well I just posted another uh link I mean the same link but again in the chat so yeah if you're interested in joining please go to the link and leave your name and email thank you for joining okay thanks all thanks have a good day thank you bye bye thank you Eugene bye thank you everyone bye-bye