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Working across Sectors to Halt Deforestation and Increase Forest Area - From Aspiration to Action

Rome, Italy; 20-22 February 2018 - http://www.cpfweb.org/93859/en/

Organized by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), the International Conference “Working across Sectors to Halt Deforestation and Increase Forest Area - from Aspiration to Action” was held from 20-22 February 2018, at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), in Rome, Italy. The conference brought together approximately 300 participants from governments, international organizations, the scientific community, private sector, civil society and farmer organizations. They discussed the challenges of halting and reversing deforestation, and explored ways to accelerate progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.2 on halting deforestation by 2020, and Target 1.1 of the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 (UNSPF), which calls for reversing the loss of forest cover and increasing forest areas by 3% worldwide by 2030.

Press release about conference outcomes:

Documents


In the Media

IUFRO took the lead in organizing Session 16 on "The Role of Science and Research". A panel of scientists discussed with the conference participants five key policy, governance and implementation challenges and the role of science and research in addressing these challenges so as to increase credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness of actions. The panel included, among others,

  • Statement by high-level policy maker: Dr Hans Hoogeveen, Ambassador/Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations;
  • Professor Daniela Kleinschmit (Professor and Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, and Coordinator of IUFRO Division 9);
  • Dr. Vincent Gitz (Director, CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry);
  • Professor Avery Cohn (Assistant Professor of Environment and Resource Policy, The Fletcher School, Tufts University); and
  • Dr. Pablo Pacheco (Principal Scientist, CIFOR);
  • Dr. Christopher Stewart, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Olam International Ltd.

The session was moderated by Dr. John Parrotta (Program Leader for International Forest Science Issues, U.S. Forest Service, and Vice-President of IUFRO). Details of the session can be found on the CPF webpage at http://foris.fao.org/hd2018/programme/session/5a7774c7d30243589fd4ea17.  


In the Media

IUFRO also contributed to several other sessions, including the following:

Details of these sessions and the conference programme as a whole are available at: http://www.cpfweb.org/94065/en/             


The conference was preceded by a "Pre-Conference Youth Session: Cross-sectoral youth engagement and capacity building" on Monday, February 19th. IUFRO Executive Director Alexander Buck spoke in the opening of the session and shared IUFRO's activities and experiences with youth engagement. A detailed description of the session can be found at http://foris.fao.org/hd2018/programme/session/5a75ef8ed30243589fd4e6e4.