Running parallel to the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, a “Forest Day” event was organized on 8 December 2007 by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and co-hosted by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests.

The first of its kind, Forest Day was attended by more than 800 people, including scientists, policymakers and representatives from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. With widespread recognition of the key role that forests play in both mitigation and adaptation to climate change, Forest Day was convened as a platform for multi-stakeholder discussion to help shape the global forest agenda. Included in the event were 25 side events and sessions on four cross-cutting themes: methodological challenges in estimating forest carbon; market and governance; equity versus efficiency; and adaptation.
A number of side events held at the Climate Change Conference also focused on reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), with speakers, inter alia, proposing new tropical deforestation emission reduction schemes, describing the political economy of avoided deforestation, and urging private sector participation. In addition, a study was released by the World Agroforestry Center, CIFOR and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture showing that, in many cases, activities resulting in deforestation rarely returned more that US $5 for every ton of carbon they released, while a ton of carbon on the European market is currently trading at 23 euros. Another study by New Forests showed that REDD can compete well against other land uses except for palm oil, which was still much more profitable.
Links to further information
IISD RS coverage of Forest Day
IISD RS coverage of UN Climate Change Conference side events
CIFOR media release, 5 December 2007