15 May 2014: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has issued the nineteenth edition of InFo News, its newsletter on forests and forestry.

This edition reflects on FAO celebrations for the International Day of Forests, which is held annually on 21 March, and focuses on a high level seminar on forest monitoring held at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy, as well as field events such as a student debate in Bangkok, Thailand, an art conference and fashion show in Geneva, Switzerland, and a ceremony on forests and livelihoods in Marondera West, Zimbabwe.

The newsletter also reports on FAO’s activities with regard to the International Forum on Payments for Environmental Services (PES) of Tropical Forests, the international expert meeting to set the five-year research agenda on forests and water, and the discussion forum on sustainable forest management (SFM), the green economy and poverty alleviation in Asia. The meetings considered, respectively, the importance of internalizing the costs of forest ecosystem services, the complexity of the links between forests and water, and the importance of the landscape approach, stakeholder engagement and smallholder participation in SFM.

The bulletin also notes the release of the ‘Forest Sector Study of the Russian Far East – a Roadmap for Value-added Investment in the Forest Industry.’ The Roadmap sets the framework for the transition to a sustainable forestry sector in the Russian Federation through investments in technologies for sawmilling, particleboard, glulam and liquid biofuel production.

Finally, the newsletter reiterates the call for proposals in support of the FAO / EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programme. [Publication: InFo News No.19] [Publication: Forest Sector Study of the Russian Far East – a Roadmap for Value-added Investment in the Forest Industry] [EU FAO FLEGT Website]