Environmental issues and sustainable development

The United Nations Forum on Forests concluded its eighteenth session today, approving a draft decision that its nineteenth session will be held at United Nations Headquarters from 6 to 10 May 2024 along with the draft provisional agenda for that session, sending both texts to the Economic and Social Council for formal adoption following week-long discussions on topics ranging from the importance of sustainable forest management to the potential offered by wood-based bioenergy.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the Islamic Development Bank Annual Meeting, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia today:

As the Forum on Forests addressed its preparations for the midterm review on the effectiveness of the international arrangement on forests and the status of its Trust Fund, as well as emerging issues facing forest management, speakers today underlined the need to improve transparency, increase funding and build on the forests-energy-livelihoods nexus.

Building countries’ capacities to increase data collection and develop financing that supports sustainable forest management is much needed, speakers stressed, as the United Nations Forum on Forests today considered means of implementation and the monitoring, assessment and reporting of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030.

In Sudan, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners are increasing their response to the current crisis. With food insecurity expected to surge to record levels, affecting two fifths of the population, the World Food Programme plans to scale up emergency assistance to some 4.9 million people in the coming months.

Sharing national best practices on the protection of forests, speakers today deliberated ways of enhancing sustainable forest management in achieving global forest goals and explored their linkages with other major international frameworks and agreements, as the United Nations Forum on Forests continued its session.

The World Food Programme reports that, starting next month, it will suspend assistance for over 200,000 people in Palestine — 60 per cent of its caseload — due to severe funding shortfalls. It urgently needs $51 million to continue providing life-saving food and cash aid to 350,000 Palestinians until the end of this year.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Multi-stakeholder Hearing on Tuberculosis in preparation for the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on Tuberculosis, in New York today:

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) dispatched two patrols to protect civilians after receiving two reports yesterday about the presence of members of the CODECO armed group in Blukwa, near Djugu, in Ituri Province, forcing the armed group to withdraw.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the 2023 Petersberg Climate Dialogue, in Berlin today: