Forest governance assessment is an expanding practice. People are using sssessments to watch for developing problems, diagnose needs for reform, monitor progress of programs, and evaluate impacts. Governments, civil society organizations, development partners, academics and coalitions of stakeholders have all performed assessments in recent years.

In 2012, an expert meeting at FAO headquarters in Rome recommended the creation of a guide to good practices in forest governance assessment and data collection. Under the guidance of a diverse committee of experts, FAO and PROFOR have overseen the production of this practical manual. This guide presents a step-by-step approach to planning a forest governance assessment, designing data collection methods and tools, collecting and analyzing data, and making the results available to decision makers and other stakeholders. It also presents five case studies to illustrate how assessments have applied the steps in practice, and it includes references and links to dozens of sources of further information.