Forests and their “hidden harvest” of products, ecosystems and services — critical to the survival of the planet and its people — remained woefully underfunded and undervalued, even as States forged ahead to meet other environmental and climate goals, the United Nations Forum on Forests heard on the second day of its annual session.
The United Nations Forum on Forests opened its thirteenth session today with speakers challenging Member States to quicken the pace of implementing the United Nations strategic plan for forests (2017-2030), thus contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The United Nations Forum on Forests approved its “omnibus” resolution today, outlining the broad contours for countries to report on sustainable woodlands management, financing for those efforts, expanded engagement with partners, and influencing high-level political discussions in the Economic and Social Council.
The United Nations Forum on Forests was in a position to lead high-level discussions on how smart investments in woodland areas could reduce the risks of natural disaster, mitigate climate change and more broadly foster implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, speakers said today as they continued the policy body’s twelfth session.
Tree-based ecosystems could play a vital role in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 — on ending hunger, realizing food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture — participants said today, as the United Nations Forum on Forests continued its twelfth session.
The United Nations Forum on Forests continued its twelfth session today with two panel discussions exploring the contributions of woodland areas to eradicating poverty and achieving gender equality.
Covering 30 per cent of the earth’s land surface and providing critical food security, energy and livelihoods for some 1.6 billion people, forests were intimately linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and their responsible management crucial to humanity’s future, speakers underlined today, as the United Nations Forum on Forests opened its twelfth session.
Acting by acclamation today, the United Nations Forum on Forests elected Peter Desseau, Canada’s Director of Forest Services and Natural Resources, President of its twelfth session. His candidacy was presented by the Group of Western European and Other States.
The Forum on Forests approved a wide-ranging omnibus resolution this evening, which would have the Economic and Social Council extend until 2030 the International Arrangement of actors involved in the management, conservation and sustainable development of the world’s woodlands, and lay out — for the first time — the main objectives of such work for the coming decades.
Capping two days of high-level debate, ministers in the Forum on Forests today pledged to promote the significance of forests in the post-2015 development agenda, reaffirming that the sustainable management of the world’s woodlands was vital to addressing other global challenges — from poverty eradication and economic growth to food security, gender equality and climate change.
