Over 550 participants gathered at the 19th session of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Committee on Forestry (COFO), from 16-20 March 2009, at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, to discuss: the FAO Strategy for Forests and Forestry; the Collaborative Partnership on Forests’ Strategic Framework on Forests and Climate Change and related topics including sustainable forest management (SFM) and climate change; forest genetic resources; reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation; access to financing; the impacts of recent economic turbulence on the forest sector; and preparations for the XIII World Forestry Congress (WFC XIII).

Delegates also attended presentations on: ecosystem-based adaptation; fire and climate change; the future of forestry research and education; and preparations for the eighth session of the UN Forum on Forests, which will meet from 20 April to 1 May 2009. COFO19 adopted a final report, in which it, inter alia: urges members to deliberate on national and international responses of the forestry sector to climate change; recommends that FAO and other organizations strengthen members’ capacities to implement SFM; and recommends that FAO prepare a report on the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources by 2013. In parallel to the meeting and throughout the week, many special events were held as part of “World Forest Week.”
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