14 March 2012: At the annual meeting of the Program on Forests (PROFOR) Advisory Board, the Secretariat reported on activity outcomes of the calendar year and sought decisions and guidance from the Board on a range of issues.

The Secretariat reported on 47 activities carried out during 2011, noting that 27 activities were closed during the calendar year. The PROFOR annual report for 2011 notes the increased realization over the past decade that the solutions to deforestation are more than ever found outside of the forest. It describes its achievements in mainstreaming knowledge in a crowded field, incubating new ideas and supporting innovation. The report notes the use of PROFOR tools to estimate timber volumes from standing mahogany trees, the building of a constituency for forest reform in several countries, and the collection of data on forest tenure reform in China.

On incubating emerging ideas, the report highlights, inter alia, that the Program: sponsored the Nairobi Investment Forum; supported a study on artisanal and small scale mining in West Africa, to assess environmental concerns, including primary forest clearance, dam construction, and the digging of deep pits without backfilling; and supported a study on the scaling up of renewable charcoal production in Brazil. On innovative ideas, PROFOR launched two primers, one on information and communication technology (ICT) (Forest Governance 2.0), and one public financial management (Forest Sector Public Expenditure Reviews).

The PROFOR 2012 Advisory Board Meeting took place from 13-14 March 2012, at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. PROFOR is a multi-donor partnership, hosted by the World Bank, to pursue the goal of enhancing forests’ contribution to poverty reduction, sustainable development and protection of environmental services, including biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. [PROFOR Advisory Board Meeting Website] [Publication: PROFOR Program of Work and Financial Report 2011]