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Editorial: Repositioning forests and forestry in the international development agenda, for the common good
His Royal Highness Prince Laurent of Belgium
Special FAO Ambassador for Forests and the Environment
In 2014, at the opening of the 22nd Session of the Committee on Forestry, His Royal Highness Prince Laurent of Belgium was appointed FAO Special Ambassador for Forests and the Environment. HRH is currently on an official visit to Cabo Verde where, together with high-level Cabo Verde authorities and FAO officials, he will see the work being undertaken in various forestry projects.
Learn what lies behind HRH Prince Laurent's longstanding efforts to promote global development and his passion for the environment, sustainable technologies, and animal health and well-being, and why he believes forests and forestry should be positioned at the forefront of the international development agenda.
Read more ...
FAO Forestry news
International Day of Forests, 21 March 2015
Forests | Climate | Change
Celebratory events are being held around the world to mark the 3rd International Day of Forests (IDF). On 20 March at FAO headquarters, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva will deliver the opening statement at a special event on Forests | Climate | Change.
The event will also feature the publication of new findings on CO2 forest emissions and removals from 1990 to 2015, based on FAO and IPCC data, which will be released on 20 March, as well as other climate-change-related expert presentations by Lutfi Akca, Undersecretary, Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, Turkey, and Youba Sokona, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III on mitigation of climate change, and FAO Forestry partners and technical staff.
Follow the webcast of the FAO headquarters special event.
 View the IDF 2015 video spot in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian as well as German and Italian.
Visit the FAO International Day of Forests homepage for information on events being organized by FAO, countries and partners around the world, including FAO's IDF Forest Quiz.
XIV World Forestry Congress, Durban, South Africa
7-11 September 2015
 Registration opening: Friday, 20 March 2015
Conference registration will open on Friday, 20 March, with special rates for "early-bird" registration. Visit the Congress website on the 20th for information on how to register.
Preliminary information on events: 1st Wildlife Forum
The 1st Wildlife Forum will take place on day three of the Congress on Wednesday, 9 September 2015. Organized by the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW), the forum will serve as a platform to discuss and raise awareness of sustainable wildlife management issues and to share experiences across different sectors and biomes.
View here the preliminary summary of the 1st Wildlife Forum.
Also view the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management’s new Bushmeat Sourcebook, a comprehensive online resource on bushmeat and read the CPW press release issued on World Wildlife Day on 3 March 2015.
Forest sector offers cost-effective solutions for climate change mitigation, international conference concludes
An FAO-led online conference concluded on 27 February, highlighting how the forest sector can mitigate climate change cost-effectively. Over 900 participants from 114 countries took part in question and answer sessions involving more than 60 expert presenters and panelists. Consequent outputs might strengthen the position of forestry in global climate-change discussions, particularly at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties 21 in Paris, France, later this year, where a universal agreement is expected.
Read more on The economics of climate change mitigation options in the forest sector online conference and the presentations here, and view recordings of its sessions on: afforestation and reforestation, reduced deforestation and degradation, changing forest management practices, wood energy, green building and sustainable packaging.
Also watch the closing remarks of FAO Forestry’s Eduardo Rojas-Briales.
Forest sector's contributions to global food security and nutrition documented in major online consultation
Forestry is integral to global food security and nutrition (FSN), and as FAO Forestry emphasizes in an authoritative online consultation, the sector’s contributions to FSN are many and wide-ranging. The consultation was part of the CFS HLPE’s scoping exercise for the preparation of its draft report on sustainable forestry for food security and nutrition that it will present to the CFS Plenary in 2017.
Read the full text of FAO Forestry’s contribution to the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) High-level Panel of Experts (HLPE) scoping exercise - Sustainable forestry for food security and nutrition – e-consultation to set the track of the study - and view all other contributions here. Also visit the FAO Forestry website Forests for Food Security and Nutrition.
Education and knowledge: key entry points for modernizing the Near East forest sector
Modernization of the Near East’s forest sector is a regional priority that requires more robust forestry education, an FAO-led workshop in Algeria concluded. Government and forest academia and research experts from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan met to validate a regional forest education assessment and to propose a project to ensure that forestry knowledge supports local people’s livelihood aspirations and addresses environmental challenges.
Read more in Le Soir d’Algerie news item.
Global news
Addressing the fundamentals: protecting the forest tenure of Asia-Pacific's rural poor
Cambodia, Nepal and Viet Nam are among the first countries in the Asia-Pacific region to partner with FAO in a regional pilot initiative to strengthen tenure rights and policies, for the betterment of their peoples' livelihoods and incomes. By promoting and supporting improvements in institutional capacity, forest tenure policies and governance, the food security and livelihoods of millions of the region’s rural poor could be transformed.
Read more in the FAO press release on the inception forum on Strengthening forest tenure for sustaining livelihoods and generating income, convened in February 2015 by the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) and hosted by Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, and in the RAP event concept note.
Local communities and ecosystems at the heart of Amazonian protected areas initiative
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, Peru and Venezuela are collaborating with the Latin American Network of National Parks (REDPARQUES) on an EU-funded initiative to strengthen Amazonian protected areas systems and improve local livelihoods. In Lima, the project's steering committee was established to supervise and coordinate this stage of the FAO and partner-implemented initiative, which is a contribution to the Amazon Vision Agreement integrating the Amazon Biomes and to which the eight countries are signatories.
Read more in the press release (Spanish) on the Peruvian launch in February 2015, and on the project's overall launch in Colombia in October 2014 (English). FAO is implementing the project jointly with partners Worldwide Fund for Nature, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, UNEP and REDPARQUES.
Forest and Farm Facility's regional and global partners meet to coordinate on future strategies
At the Forest and Farm Facility’s (FFF) two recent strategic meetings with partners and members, it continued to advance the cause of its core constituencies. Key aspects of its future strategies include increasing youth’s involvement in FFF organizations, making more use of indigenous communication tools and using major forthcoming forestry-related meetings to highlight FFF objectives more forcefully.
Read more about the FFF regional and global partners meeting held at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Gland, Switzerland, and the Steering Committee and Donor Meetings held at FAO headquarters in Rome.
Tropical forest loss: a concern when it occurs, but both satellite and ground measurements needed for full perspective
A recent article in the Washington Post highlighted a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) journal, which raised concerns about UN recorded rates of tropical forest loss and consequent impacts on carbon emissions and ecosystem services. While acknowledging the validity of the study’s satellite imagery analyses, FAO’s Ken MacDicken noted that accurate forest loss measurements require aerial, satellite and ground-based technologies.
Read more in the 26 February 2015 Washington Post article, Tropical forests may be vanishing even faster than previously thought, with a link to the Geophysical Research Letters new study, as well as the published response of Ken MacDicken, FAO Forestry Senior Officer and head of FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment team. The team will be releasing new findings on climate-change mitigation on 20 March.
Meetings and events
Meetings
- Inception meeting GEF-funded project Fouta Djallon Highlands Integrated Natural Resources Management project - FAO, UNEP and the African Union, Dakar, Senegal, 8 -10 April 2015
- 3rd World Teak Conference 2015 – Strengthening Global Teak Resources and Markets for Sustainable Development Asociación Ecuatoriana de Productores de Teca y Maderas Tropicales, FAO, International Teak Information Network, IUFRO – Guayaquil, Eduador, 11–15 May 2015
Collaborative Partnership on Forests events calendar, including:
United Nations events 2015
Partner and country events
International Days - March to May 2015
Publications and videos
Online resources
Publications
- FAO assessment of forests and carbon stocks, 1990-2015 - Reduced overall emissions, but increased degradation
The brochure will be released at the FAO headquarters IDF special event. It will be available for viewing from midday, Rome time, on 20 March here.
Did you know ...
... a recently discovered copy of the ancient English Magna Carta (Latin for “the Great Charter") in the county of Kent also contained its companion document The Charter of the Forest. Only two other such pairs exist in the world. First issued in 1217, The Charter of the Forest provided rights of common access to (royal) private lands and remained on the English statute books until 1971.
Journals and newsletters
Videos
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