28 October 2015: At their meeting held from 27-29 October 2015, in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, the Ministers Responsible for Forestry of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) endorsed the Eda Statement, which highlights the importance of sustainable forest management (SFM) in achieving long-term sustainable socioeconomic development in the region.

Ministers discussed, among other issues: supporting SFM; forest conservation and forest rehabilitation to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts; challenges in maintaining and strengthening efforts to combat illegal logging and associated trade; and suitable investment in the development of forests and forest resources.

The Eda Statement identifies 12 aspirations for APEC member economies to pursue, including: encouraging implementation of tangible actions to contribute to increasing forest cover in the region by at least 20 million hectares of all types of forests by 2020; addressing common gaps and challenges faced in meeting global forestry goals; encouraging APEC economies to share information and best practices to support SFM; enhancing cooperation among APEC economies to combat illegal logging and associated trade, promote trade in legally harvested forest products and build capacity; recognizing the importance of cross-sectoral coordination among agriculture, forestry and other land use sub-sectors; and recognizing and encouraging policies and mechanisms that promote and enhance fair and transparent investment for the development of the forest sector and trade in legally harvested forest products. [APEC News Release] [Eda Statement]