Recognizing the challenges that forest resources represent in improving the living conditions of populations, in particular by reducing poverty and adapting to climate change, the State has taken measures to ensure the conservation and rational exploitation of these resources. These measures have resulted in the implementation of a range of programmes aimed at ensuring the development and sustainable management of forests and natural resources. However, the implementation, planning and monitoring and evaluation of these programmes cannot be carried out in the absence of a system for the production of comprehensive and quality information. Indeed, it should be emphasized that the forest sub-sector does not fundamentally suffer from a lack of data but rather from a high dispersion of data and also from a weak dissemination of these data due to the multiplicity of actors involved in the production of these data. Faced with this poor situation, the need to centralize the data produced by the various actors in the forest sub-sector is necessary in order to improve coordination. The production of the 2016 forest statistics yearbook is part of the sustainability of post-project achievements, in order to ensure continuity in the dissemination of information on forest and wildlife resources in Benin. Thus, the various works to develop the third edition of this directory were carried out with the financial and technical support of the Programme de Gestion des Forêts et Terroirs Riverain Additional Phase (PGFTR-FA), an institutional support program for the DGEFC. The 2015-2016 yearbook is structured in five (05) parts. The first part presents the administrative organization of the forest sub-sector. The second part brings together statistics on forest cover, wood potential and the exploitation of forest products. The third part presents the indicators relating to the management of wildlife and protected areas. Information on the management of wildfires is presented in the fourth part. Finally, the fifth part is devoted to forest recipes.

1.1.1. Technical structures
In Benin, the water-forest and hunting service was created in 1938 and is now
under the supervision of the Ministry of Living Environment and Sustainable Development
(MCVDD), formerly the Ministry of the Environment in charge of the Management of
Climate Change, Reforestation and the Protection of Natural and Forest Resources.
The activities of the sub-sector are coordinated by the DGEFC, which plays
the lead role. It is supported by Centers and Offices which are:

• the National Center for Remote Sensing and Ecological Monitoring (CENATEL);
• the National Center for the Management of Wildlife Reserves (CENAGREF);
• the Center for Forest Studies, Research and Training (CERF);
• the National Wood Office (ONAB);
• the National Forest Development Fund (FNDF).

According to the work of IFN 2007, the total forest cover in Benin is 7,813,495 ha, or 69% of the national area.