Economic and Social Council

While welcoming a 75 per cent increase in donations to the voluntary trust funds supporting the work of the United Nations Forum on Forests, the Director of that entity’s Secretariat stressed today that contributions needed to be scaled up in the coming year so the Forum could carry out its expanded mandate and take steps to remedy its “precarious” staffing situation.

Midway through its two-week session, the United Nations Forum on Forests this afternoon considered plans, including the introduction of draft resolutions by its two Working Groups, for the second week’s discussion.

ISTANBUL, 11 April — With preparations under way to elaborate a post-2015 global framework and a set of ambitious sustainable development goals, participants at the tenth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests today stressed that woodlands must have a rightful place in those policy-designing processes, while they also tackled the matter of new financing options for managing those vital natural resources.

ISTANBUL, 10 April — Civil society must have a say in how to sustainably manage the world’s forests, and activities involving woodlands must not threaten those whose livelihoods depended on those vital global resources, representatives of major groups said today as the United Nations Forum on Forests continued its tenth session today.

Five seemingly ordinary people who have done extraordinary work for their communities and forests are being recognized as “Forest Heroes” at a special “Forests for People” award ceremony that will take place on Wednesday in Istanbul. The awards are being presented as 197 member States meet at the tenth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests.

ISTANBUL, 9 April — Forestry and woodland management were critical to tackling a number of key sustainable development challenges and the most effective way to integrate related issues into the post-2015 international development agenda would be to create a cross-cutting goal on natural resources, the United Nations Forum on Forests heard today as it continued the Ministerial Segment of its tenth session.

ISTANBUL, 8 April — As the United Nations Forum on Forests opened its two-week session in Istanbul this morning, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan implored the developed world to end unbridled, irresponsible growth and commit to sustainably manage the world’s forests before it was too late.

Current global crises impacted young people especially hard, but today’s youth had the energy and ideas to change the world, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as he welcomed youth delegates to the Economic and Social Council’s Youth Forum, convened under the theme “Shaping tomorrow’s innovators: Leveraging science, technology, innovation and culture for today’s youth”.

An infusion of youth perspectives — drawn from such events as today’s Economic and Social Council Youth Forum on science and technology and a newly launched online campaign known as “Innovate Your Future” — would bring a “real renewal” to the work of the United Nations, said Council President Néstor Osorio of Colombia at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

With youth comprising almost 20 per cent of the global population and being among the most affected by global economic, social and environmental challenges, the United Nations Economic and Social Council will organize a youth forum at New York Headquarters to explore opportunities in today’s world for young people aged between 15 and 24 years.