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.

“Remember Slavery:  The Power of the Arts for Justice” will be the theme for the eleventh annual United Nations Remember Slavery Global Student Videoconference, to be held on Friday, 10 May, at New York Headquarters.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the second part of its resumed seventy‑second session today with several speakers insisting that the Secretary-General’s proposal to cut a total of $382.2 million from the United Nations peacekeeping budget for 2019/20 must not come at the expense of delivering mandates authorized by the Security Council.

SAINT GEORGE’S, Grenada, 4 May – The process of eradicating colonialism can only be completed if the actions called for by the General Assembly are fully implemented, Grenada’s Foreign Minister said today, as the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization concluded its work.

SAINT GEORGE’S, Grenada, 3 May – Participants expressed diverging views today over the manner in which Charter principles of the United Nations such as self-determination and territorial integrity apply to Western Sahara, the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and Gibraltar, as the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization entered its second day.

The third edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Global Festival of Action wrapped up at the weekend, completing three days of inspirational exchanges, learning and co-creation by more than 1,700 participants from all over the world.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

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.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the memorial service for fallen staff, in New York today:

Around 1 million species are threatened with extinction as nature declines at unprecedented rates, a global assessment launched today by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services warns, listing amphibians, corals and marine mammals as among the most threatened.