Economic and Social Council: No name

Underscoring the importance of forest and nature education, as well as the need to mobilize private sector action, speakers today shared sustainability lessons as the United Nations Forum on Forests continued its annual session.

Convening two years after the adoption of a landmark strategic plan for the planet’s woodlands, the United Nations Forum on Forests opened its fourteenth annual session today amid renewed commitments to expand forest cover, reduce greenhouse‑gas emissions and improve the lives of some 1.6 billion forest‑dependent people around the world.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues concluded its eighteenth session this afternoon, approving several recommendations which reflected this year’s central theme, Indigenous Peoples’ Traditional Knowledge:  Generation, transmission and protection.

Despite scattered gains in land, language and legal rights, a glaring lack of political will around the world is inhibiting fundamental change on the ground in thousands of communities in every region, delegates told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today as it continued its work.

Harnessing the power of taxation to help nations realize sustainable growth and development requires inclusive, innovative approaches based on developing countries’ needs and aimed at leaving no one behind, delegates told the Economic and Social Council today during its one‑day annual meeting on international cooperation in tax matters.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today heard myriad challenges these communities face in pursuing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as calls for indigenous peoples’ inclusion at the highest level of decision-making by granting them Observer Status in the General Assembly.

With the successful inclusion of indigenous peoples’ concerns in the major global frameworks, the priority now is to translate these aspirations into concrete improvements, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today in its fourth day of discussions.

Indigenous peoples face a worrying escalation in their criminalization and harassment, especially when defending and exercising rights to their territories and natural resources, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today as it continued its third day of discussions.

Protecting and partnering with the custodians of traditional knowledge must be an active part of the solution to climate change consequences for the benefit of all humankind, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today as its eighteenth session continued.

Traditional knowledge is at the core of indigenous identity, culture, languages, heritage and livelihoods, and its transmission from one generation to the next must be protected, preserved and encouraged, speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues stressed today, as they opened its eighteenth session.