May 2015: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) launched an online discussion on the role of social protection in ensuring the livelihoods of forest-dependent people. The discussion will run until 4 June 2015 and the results will be presented during the XIV World Forestry Congress (WFC).

Overall the discussion will focus on the three main contributions of social protection: strengthening resilience, directly providing sources of income, and increasing the adoption of sustainable forest management (SFM) approaches. The discussion also intends to facilitate discourse on the social protection services provided by forests such as through the provision of livelihoods, food security and energy.

The main objectives of the discussion include: understanding potential synergies and conflicts between social protection and forestry, identifying social protection approaches to promoting SFM, and discussing ways and means to link social protection and forestry policies.

The discussion is open to anyone who wishes to register and suggests a series of questions for participants to answer related to vulnerability and risk, tools and methods for social protection, and the creation of synergies and links. [Website: Social Protection for Building Resilience of Forest Dependent People]