Over the past ten years, REDD+ countries have made substantial advances in developing and operationalizing their National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS), to comply with measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) commitments for REDD+ under UNFCCC, as well as to provide better forest data to effectively support decision-making and domestic policies. In order to support developing countries in moving towards a more solid institutional setting, this paper provides a basis for understanding the importance of institutionalizing an NFMS within each country, particularly from a legal, financial and capacity-building perspective.