science

Global Forest Information Service

Global Forest Information Service is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Global Forest Information Service rather than just read about it. In short: The Global Forest Information Service (GFIS) was an initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) and was a collaborative effort of 14 major forest-related international organizations, institutions and convention secretariat, aiming to maximize the value of all forest information resources and providers worldwide through the sharing of forest-related information through a single gateway. The effort wa…

Key takeaways

Global Forest Information Service belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Global Forest Information Service to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Global Forest Information Service from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Global Forest Information Service (GFIS) was an initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) and was a collaborative effort of 14 major forest-related international organizations, institutions and convention secretariat, aiming to maximize the value of all forest information resources and providers worldwide through the sharing of forest-related information through a single gateway. The effort was discontinued in 2021.

Aims In the global policy context, the vision and mission of GFIS are consistent with the resolutions of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and the priorities of the CPF. GFIS was led by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO); together with FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR); the UNFF Secretariat; and the Biological Informatics Office of the United States Geological Survey (USGS/BIO).

History In 1998, the International Consultation on Research and Information Systems in Forestry which was held in Gmunden, Austria, recommended that the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) should endorse and promote the development of a Global Forest Information Service to enhance access to all forest-related information, ensuring that it is accessible to all stakeholders including policy-makers, forest managers, non-governmental organizations, community groups and the public at large. Consequently, the IFF requested Inter-agency Task Force on Forests member organizations to work with International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) in exploring possibilities for a global forest information service. In implementing this request, IUFRO initiated various activities to establish GFIS. These included the establishment of a GFIS Task Force, the development of a GFIS information server and web-interface as well as the implementation of the "GFIS Africa" project to strengthen institutional capacities in developing countries. The first version of GFIS was presented at the IUFRO European Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August 2002 and successfully demonstrated at the XII World Forestry Congress in Quebec, Canada, in September 2003. It included contributions from over 60 forestry institutions from all regions of the world. In May 2004, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) agreed that GFIS should become a joint initiative. In response, IUFRO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Center for International Forestry Research and the United Nations Forum on Forests laid the ground work for further development of GFIS as a joint CPF initiative which was approved September 2004 at the 13th Meeting of the CPF in New York. In August 2005, the new GFIS search service was launched the XXII IUFRO World Congress held in Brisbane, Australia. The GFIS gateway catalogued key information resources, such as news, events, publications and job vacancies supplied by information providers. Since 2007, there have been continual technological advances to GFIS carried out by Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) which features improved search tool and windows to the news, events, publications, forest-related jobs & educational resources. Since 2007 there have been continual technological advances to GFIS carried out by Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) which features improved search tool and windows to the news, events, publications and job opportunities, and educational resources. In 2021 IUFRO decided not to continue GFIS as a separate entity and instead focus on creating its own online information resources centre, so the www.gfis.net website was taken down. They have created a webpage describing the history of the effort.

See also European Forest Downstream Services (EUFODOS) Forestknowledge.net World Forestry Center

References

External links IUFRO description of program end & history Archived 2022-12-18 at the Wayback Machine Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) Archived 2023-03-21 at the Wayback Machine This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Global Forest Information Service

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Global Forest Information Service claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Global Forest Information Service before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Global Forest Information Service ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Global Forest Information Service

In research: Global Forest Information Service appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Global Forest Information Service in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Global Forest Information Service is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Environmental websites, Finnish websites, Forestry initiatives, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Global Forest Information Service outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Global Forest Information Service in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Global Forest Information Service means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Global Forest Information Service out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Global Forest Information Service in simple terms?

Why does Global Forest Information Service matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Global Forest Information Service?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Global Forest Information Service.