At the meeting on the development of an action plan on forests and the green economy, stakeholders, inter alia: defined focus areas of forest sector actions; considered key challenges for implementing the actions; and discussed enabling conditions needed to ensure forests' and the forest sector's contribution to a green economy.
11 May 2010: A stakeholders meeting on the development of an action plan on forests and the green economy was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 10-11 May 2011, under the auspices of the Forestry and Timber Section of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), in cooperation with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The meeting served to: review the draft action plan, developed on the basis of submissions received in response to a call for contributions; define focus areas of forest sector actions; consider key challenges for implementing the actions; and discuss enabling conditions needed to ensure forests’ and the forest sector’s contribution to a green economy. The five main pillars of the draft action plan include: sustainable wood consumption and production; the low-carbon forest sector; green jobs in the forest sector; valuation of, and payment for, forest ecosystem services; and monitoring and governance of the forest sector.
The draft action plan, as further developed by the stakeholder meeting, is expected to be reviewed by the UNECE Timber Committee and FAO European Forestry Commission meeting scheduled to take place from 10-14 October 2011, in Antalya, Turkey. It will then be presented as a regional sectoral contribution from the forest sector at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20). [Meeting Website] [The Draft Action Plan]