This is the first policy session of the Forum since the adoption of the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2030 by the UN General Assembly in 2017. Discussions at UNFF13 will provide a timely opportunity for the Forum to promote implementation of the Strategic Plan and provide input to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in July 2018.

The Strategic plan and its Global Forest Goals and targets provide a global framework for sustainably managing all types of forests and trees, halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation, and increasing forest area by 2030. The Plan also serves a blueprint to promote the contributions of forests to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Forests and trees sustain life

Forests and trees provide vital resources for life on Earth. They sustain our economies, societies and promote our overall well-being. Forested watersheds and wetlands supply 75 per cent of the world’s freshwater – for households as well as agriculture or industrial use. Forests are nature’s water towers, they filter, store and supply freshwater, and through transpiration they seed clouds and affect rainfall patterns.

About one third of the world’s population relies on biomass-based energy from forests and trees for their daily needs, particularly cooking and heating. Sustainable forest management and sustainable use of forest products offer some of the most effective and cost-competitive natural carbon capture and storage options available.

Forests sustain human health, from clean air and water to providing components for 75 per cent of top-ranking global prescription medications. These vital ecosystems build resilience, prevent land degradation and desertification, reduce the risk of floods, landslides and avalanches, droughts, dust storms and sandstorms and other natural disasters. When properly managed, forests are healthy, productive, resilient and renewable ecosystems.

The UNFF13 agenda includes discussions on the contributions of forests in accelerating achievement of the SDGs and in supporting global efforts in the transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies, as well as monitoring, assessment and reporting frameworks, mobilizing forest financing, and strategies for communication and outreach. To this end, a Ministerial Roundtable and a series of interactive panel discussions will be held during this session.

The UN Forum on Forests is a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council and is composed of 197 Member States of the UN and State Members of the Specialized Agencies. Since its inception in 2001, the Forum has reached major policy milestones including the adoption of the first UN Forest Instrument in 2007, the creation of the Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network in 2015 and most recently, the adoption of the first-ever UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2030 in 2017.

For more information: see un.org/development/desa/en/news/forest/un-forest-forum-13.html]]> /esa/forests/news/2018/03/unsg-international-day-of-forests-2018/ Wed, 21 Mar 2018 21:07:20 +0000 /esa/forests/?p=10148 It is a pleasure to be here to mark this day as part of the Netherlands’ Presidency of the Security Council.

High-level debates in the Security Council may sometimes seem divorced from grassroots issues. Today, we are literally looking at grassroots. I was supposed to get my hands dirty, but circumstances did not allow it, so and that is not a metaphor.

In our daily lives, in this busy United Nations complex, in the middle of this dynamic city, we all need regular reminders of our connection with nature and our planet. This act is fundamental. The health of our planet is essential to our own health and wellbeing, and to our future and trees are an essential part of it.

I welcome the Dutch Presidency’s focus on tackling the root causes of conflict, including climate change, which has very serious implications for peace and security in all regions.

Trees and forests play an essential role in mitigating the impact of climate change. Planting trees is one of the most important things we can do to contribute to the health of the planet.

And trees improve our lives both on a grand scale and at the local level. Strategic planting of trees can help save the energy used for heating in winter and for air conditioning in summer, both very necessary in New York.

Trees in urban areas filter the air and remove harmful particles. They also help to filter and regulate water, preventing flooding and protecting watersheds.

They reduce noise pollution by shielding homes and offices from roads and industrial areas.

They provide a hospitable place for animals to live and other plants to grow.

And if any of you goes to Central Park knows how much trees can help to promote health and relaxation, improve quality of life and provide beautiful places for people to relax and socialize.

Trees are mysterious, wonderful and ancient. Plants and forests are hundreds of millions of years old, while homo sapiens has been around for just 250,000 years.

As the geobiologist Hope Jahren has said: People don’t know how to make a leaf, but they know how to destroy one.

Deforestation has slowed down significantly over the past 25 years. The goal of halting deforestation and restoring forests, as set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is an attainable objective if we continue our efforts.

Leaves, and trees, and all plants, are a vital accompaniment to human life. As we celebrate spring, let us celebrate them.

I have a particular personal reason to do so. When I was born, my grandfather, the father of my mother, whose name is a family name, that I still keep, that is Oliveira, that is in Portuguese “olive tree”, the day I was born he planted an olive tree. And the olive tree is still there, probably in better health than myself. And I believe it will still be there many years after I no longer [will be] around. But there is one thing in trees that I find particularly important: it is how they are a symbol of dignity. It is not by chance that trees die standing. And so let us, with this symbolic gesture of today, remind ourselves that we need to do everything we can, not only for a healthy planet but [also] for human dignity to be safeguarded in an healthy planet.

Thank you very much.

“By far the greatest source of forest financing has been – and will continue to be – from commercial private sector investments in sustainable forest management,” Manoel Sobral Filho, the Director of the UN Forum on Forests secretariat, said in a briefing on the importance of diversifying resources.

In the UN Strategic Plan for Forests, agreed earlier this year, UN Member States stressed the importance of partnerships of philanthropic organizations, foundations, as well as public-private and other multi-stakeholder entities in scaling up resources for sustainable forest management and as well as the plan’s own implementation.

The Strategic Plan also provides a framework for forest-related contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on climate change and a number of other international instruments, commitments and goals.

In addition to these direct links, importance of ensuring sustainable forest management was also recognized in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – one of the key constituents of the 2030 Agenda – given the importance of forests for efforts to combat hunger and malnutrition as well as for its larger environmental benefits.

In his briefing today, Mr. Filho further informed the meeting of funding received from resources allocated for sustainable forest management initiatives, as well as the activities of the Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network, one of the five main components of the post-2015 International Arrangement on Forests.

Some key functions of the Network include mobilizing and supporting new and additional financial resources, and promoting effective use of existing financial resources for sustainable forest management.

The briefing was followed by a panel discussion that was attended, among others, by officials from the Ford Foundation and the World Bank.

Penny Davies, Programme Officer for Equitable Development, Ford Foundation, said the organization planned to disburse $1 billion over the next 10 years into private funds promoting “social and environmental justice” activities, she described two specific streams of forest-related investment financing: first, sustainable agriculture that did not clear natural forests and included some protection of forests; and second, sustainable forest management and community-based forest management.

“However, we are finding it difficult to place [that financing],” she said, due to a number of constraints that made those investments too difficult to justify, including: “incoherent spatial mapping” and uncertain land tenure, where investments could be contested by several parties; conflict, which could cause delays in the Foundation’s projects or cause the withdrawal of its partners; and the fact that the Ford Foundation’s private finance is insufficient in the face of government subsidies to unsustainable forest and agricultural management, that incentivizes forest clearance.

The UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) is a high-level intergovernmental policy forum that includes UN Member States, Permanent Observers as well as regional organizations and groups.

Its current (twelfth) session concludes tomorrow, 5 May.

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]]> /esa/forests/news/2017/05/protection-of-forests-fundamental-to-security-of-humanitys-place-on-this-planet-un-forum-told/ Mon, 01 May 2017 21:11:32 +0000 /esa/forests/?p=9750 Kick-starting action on the recently-adopted Global Forest Goals to protect, sustainably manage and increase world’s forest area will be a key focus for delegations gathered in New York for the twelfth session of the UN Forum on Forests, which opened today at United Nations Headquarters.

The six forest goals and 26 associated targets, all to be achieved by 2030, the deadline set by UN Member States for broad attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), were adopted late last week by the General Assembly as part of the UN Strategic Plan for Forest 2017-2030, which includes a landmark target to expand the world’s forests by three per cent – an area of 120 million hectares, by 2030.

“Let us make no mistake on this matter – the health of the world’s forests is fundamental to humanity’s place on this planet,” said Assembly President Peter Thomson at the opening of the Forum’s current session, emphasizing that forests were home to 80 per cent of the earth’s land-based animal, plant and insect species.

Together, they regulate climate, prevent land degradation, reduce the risk of floods, landslides and avalanches, and protect people from droughts and dust storms. Forests also played a critical role in staving off the worst impacts of climate change, serving as the world’s second-largest storehouse of carbon, he said. Indeed, the world’s tropical forests alone retained a quarter trillion tons of carbon in biomass.

“If we are to succeed in the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the protection and sustainable management of our forests will be fundamental to the security of humanity’s place upon this planet,” Mr. Thomson, adding that the Assembly’s decision to adopt the first-ever strategic plan was “a critical one.”

Forests presently cover 30 per cent of the Earth’s land area, or nearly four billion hectares. Sustainably managed forests are healthy, productive, resilient and renewable ecosystems, which provide vital goods and ecosystem services to people worldwide. An estimated 25 per cent of the global population – 1.6 billion people – depends on forests for their subsistence, livelihood, employment and income.

The UN forests plan provides a global framework for actions to sustainably manage all types of forests and trees outside forests and halt deforestation and forest degradation.

The goals cover a wide range of issues including increasing forest area and combating climate change, reducing poverty and increasing forest protected areas, mobilizing financing and inspiring innovation, promoting governance and enhancing cooperation across sectors and stakeholders.

In his opening remarks, Peter Besseau, of Canada, Chair of the twelfth session of the Forum on Forests, said the landmark global action plan translated the aspirations of the International Arrangement on Forest into an actionable plan to guide the Forums’ work for the next 13 years. “The Global Forest Goals reflect the way the Forum is transforming its work to more effectively address the challenges facing forests and the lives of the people who depend on them.”

He urged all countries and stakeholders to tackle the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation; balance economic growth, social progress and environmental sustainability; and improve governance in order to integrate forest issues, as per the guidance from the Quadrennial Programme of Work.

As a unique universal body on forests, the UN Forum has an important role to play in implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo told the Forum’s members today.

He noted that “the new method of work of the Forum, provides an excellent opportunity for the body to address the links between forests and the SDGs, as well as capacity building, financing, technology development and transfer, governance, and science-policy interface, in a holistic and coherent manner.”

The six goals not only contribute to progress on the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs, but also address the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and other international forest-related commitments and goals.

“To create a better, greener future, we need the right enabling environment – from governance systems that combat illegal deforestation, to policies that ensure equitable sharing of benefits from forests” stressed the Director of UN Forum on Forests, Manoel Sobral Filho.

“When sustainably managed, forests provide essential goods and services worldwide,” said Mr. Sobral Filho, adding that for millions of people living in poverty, “forests serve as safety nets in crises and often provide pathways out of poverty.”

‘Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity in a Changing World’ Discussions at the Forum will take into account the 2017 theme of the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), ‘Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity in a Changing World’ and the SDGs under in-depth review by the HLPF this year.

The Forest Forum will also discuss issues related to sustainable forest management and strategies to promote implementation of the UN forest action plan.

Six Global Forest Goals

• Global Forest Goal 1 – Reverse the loss of forest cover worldwide through sustainable forest management, including protection, restoration, afforestation and reforestation, and increase efforts to prevent forest degradation and contribute to the global effort of addressing climate change.
• Global Forest Goal 2 – Enhance forest-based economic, social and environmental benefits, including by improving the livelihoods of forest dependent people.
• Global Forest Goal 3 – Increase significantly the area of protected forests worldwide and other areas of sustainably managed forests, as well as the proportion of forest products from sustainably managed forests.
• Global Forest Goal 4 – Mobilize significantly increased, new and additional financial resources from all sources for the implementation of sustainable forest management and strengthen scientific and technical cooperation and partnerships.
• Global Forest Goal 5 – Promote governance frameworks to implement sustainable forest management, including through the UN Forest Instrument, and enhance the contribution of forests to the 2030 Agenda.
• Global Forest Goal 6 – Enhance cooperation, coordination, coherence and synergies on forest-related issues at all levels, including within the UN System and across Collaborative Partnership on Forests member organizations, as well as across sectors and relevant stakeholders.

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Today, more than 2 billion people, in rural and urban areas, still rely on wood fuel to meet their primary energy needs such as cooking and heating. Wood based energy accounts for 27 per cent of the total primary energy supply in Africa, 13 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean and 5 percent in Asia and Oceania, according to FAO estimates.

Forests cover 30 per cent of the Earth’s land area, yet they continue to be under threat from unsustainable use, environmental degradation, rapid urbanization, population growth, and the impacts of climate change. Between 2010 and 2015, global forest area saw a net decrease of 3.3 million hectares per year.

“This is an area where we can make a real difference,” said Wu Hongbo, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. “Sustainably managed forests are productive and resilient ecosystems. They provide people with livelihoods and renewable energy, along with timber, food, shelter, clean air, water and climate benefits. Promoting sustainable forest management can help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals faster.”

Regions with the greatest incidence of poverty, most notably in Sub-Saharan Africa and low income households in Asia, are also the most dependent on fuelwood: “Nearly 90 per cent of all fuelwood and charcoal use takes place in developing countries, where forests are often the only energy source available to the rural poor,” said Manoel Sobral Filho, Director of the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat.

“In order to meet this essential need for renewable energy, now and in the future, we need to galvanize efforts to increase the area of sustainable managed forests in these countries,” he added.

Earlier this year, the UN Forum on Forests reached agreement on a UN Strategic Plan for Forests that includes a target to expand global forest area by 3 per cent by 2030, an area of 120 million hectares, about the size of South Africa; as well as a target to eradicate extreme poverty for all forest dependent people by 2030.

Developing countries are not the only ones using forests for energy. Bioenergy from forest biomass (in various forms, including pellets and wood processing waste) accounts for about half of Europe’s renewable-energy consumption. Countries across Europe are converting their power plants from using only coal to a mix of coal and wood products to meet renewable “carbon neutral” energy goals. It is estimated that about 90 million people in Europe and North America now use wood energy as their main source of domestic heating.

Ongoing efforts in improving cook stoves, and technological advancements in increasing energy efficiency and production of biomass energy, along with growing concerns over reducing fossil fuel dependence, make it increasingly likely that biomass energy from forests will continue to be a source of renewable energy in the future.

Oshurbika Malabekova, is a resident of Roshorv village in Tajikistan’s remote Pamir highlands in Central Asia. To heat her home and cook, Oshurbika’s family has no good option. The family can pay exorbinant fees to have firewood transported in from another region, pay for gas or diesel (rarely available in her village), or venture on foot far from Roshorv to gather what little wood and shrubs remain.

Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains are home to sensitive ecosystems and rich biodiversity, including rare flora and endangered fauna such as the beautiful snow leopard. Known locally as the “Roof of the World,” the Pamir Mountains are the center of the Pamir Knot, which is the point of convergence for Eurasia’s highest mountain ranges, including the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, and Tien Shan mountains.

The Pamir highlands have also long been home to people — rugged communities anchored in rich culture and tradition, but accustomed to surviving in the harsh conditions and energy poverty. Over time, the practice of gathering wood for fuel has had a significant negative impact on the biodiverse and fragile mountain ecosystems, particularly on the upper Bartang Valley.

Regions with the greatest incidence of poverty, most notably Sub-Saharan Africa and low income households in Asia, are also the most dependent on fuel wood. At the same time, the use of unsustainably harvested fuelwood, which often occurs in these areas, continues to be a challenge which has negative economic and environmental impacts.

Developing countries are not the only ones dependent on forests for energy. Bio energy from forest biomass (in various forms, including pellets, sticks and sawdust) accounts for about half of Europe’s renewable-energy consumption. Countries across Europe are converting their power plants from using only coal to a mix of coal and wood products to meet renewable “carbon neutral” energy goals.

In recognition of these important inter-linkages between forests and energy, the central theme of the 2017 is “Forests and Energy.” The need for sustainable management of forests and sustainable energy resources has also been recognized in SDGs 7 and SDG 15 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The agreement, on the first-ever UN Strategic Plan for Forests, was forged at a special session of the UN Forum on Forests and provides an ambitious vision for global forests in 2030. The Plan features a set of six Global Forest Goals and associated targets to be reached by 2030, which are voluntary and universal.

Forests presently cover 30 per cent of the Earth’s land area, or nearly 4 billion hectares. Sustainably managed forests are healthy, productive, resilient and renewable ecosystems which provide essential goods and services to people worldwide. An estimated 1.6 billion people – 25 per cent of the global population – depend on forests for subsistence, livelihood, employment and income generation.

“Recognizing the vital contributions of forests to people, planet and prosperity, the Strategic Plan includes a target to increase forest area by three per cent worldwide by 2030, signifying an increase of 120 million hectares, an area over twice the size of France,” said Hans Hoogeveen, Co-Chair of the Working Group that developed the UN Strategic Plan for Forests for 2017-2030.

Forests have been on the forefront of international policy and political agendas since 1992. Until now, the focus of the global community had been on reversing and reducing deforestation and forests degradation.

“This agreement to set a global target to increase global forest area by 2030 represents a bold, groundbreaking decision by the 197 Member States of the UN Forum on Forests” said Manoel Sobral Filho, Director of the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat. “The UN Strategic Plan for Forests builds on the vision of the 2030 Agenda and recognizes that real change requires decisive, collective action, within and beyond the UN System.”

He added that the Plan envisions a world where forests are “sustainably managed, contribute to sustainable development and provide economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits for present and future generations.”

Forests provide goods such as wood, food, fuel, fibre, fodder, and other non-wood products. They provide a range of ecosystem services, from soil, land, water and biodiversity conservation to climate change mitigation and adaptation, from clean air to reducing the risk of natural disasters including floods, landslides, droughts, and dust and sand storms.

The Plan sets out a framework for action to safeguard the world’s most productive land-based ecosystems and tackle key threats and challenges. The key mission of the Plan is to promote sustainable forest management and highlight the contribution of forests to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including by strengthening cooperation and political commitment at all levels.