National forest monitoring is a process that includes generating information to allow for the monitoring of changes and trends in forests over time, usually from cycles of data collection (both remote-sensing and field inventory data). The UN-REDD Programme has supported national forest monitoring capacity development in many countries, including for technical capacities, such as data collection and management, and for functional capacities, such as forest inventory planning and implementation, data management and sharing, quality assurance and continuous improvement. National forest monitoring remains a male dominated field, but the Programme has worked to achieve gender parity by striving to ensure that at least 30 per cent of participants in its training events and among those holding professional roles are women. Interestingly, with the shift to online events owing to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, women’s participation has increased, a trend which needs to be better understood to help to enable women’s participation in the future.