21 September 2011: The World Future Council announced the winners of the Future Policy Award, which celebrates policies that create better living conditions and promote just, sustainable and peaceful societies. This year’s topic was forests and the gold award was given to Rwanda’s forest policy, which is credited with increasing forest cover in the country by 37 percent since 1990.

The World Future Council is a group of 50 respected personalities from all five continents representing governments, parliaments, the arts, civil society, science and business world. The winners of this year’s award were announced on 21 September 2011, at UN Headquarters in New York, US.

Two silver awards also were given, one to the US for its Lacey Act amendment of 2008, which prohibits trade in wood and plant products that are illegally sourced, and the other to Gambia for its Community Forestry Policy.

Put in place with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the Gambia has shown that “with the right legal framework rural populations can benefit economically from forests and improve their food security and environment,” according to Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO’s Assistant Director-General for Forestry. [UN Media Release] [World Future Council News]