One hundred participants gathered from 24-30 March 2003 in Wellington, New Zealand at this meeting, which was convened to support the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) in the implementation of actions to promote sustainable forest management.

Meeting sponsors were Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and ITTO. Participants represented 45 countries in five continents and a range of sectors, including governments, the private sector, academia, international and non-governmental organizations and indigenous people’s organizations.
The programme included three keynote papers and four plenary sessions. The plenary sessions covered the benefits and challenges associated with planted forests, and considered how to ensure and facilitate sustainable forest management (SFM). Each session included up to four papers on the subject and was followed by working groups that addressed questions related to the papers presented. The working groups’ conclusions were presented to a plenary session.
Among the Experts Meeting’s recommendations were calls on the UNFF, other relevant organizations and stakeholders to: note that planted forests encompass a diverse range from large-scale plantations to small-scale holdings for industrial, protection, rehabilitation and community needs; note that planted forests have an important role to play in poverty eradication and policies must encourage the development of planted forests that are appropriate to the local context and meet the needs of economically and socially marginalized groups and indigenous peoples; facilitate sustainable management of planted forests through the promotion and implementation of good governance frameworks and mechanisms; recognize and promote initiatives that achieve knowledge exchange and technology transfer, including research, communication with society, integration with agriculture, database development, compilation of case studies and training related to planted forests; encourage the further implementation of sustainable management tools for planted forests, including scientifically based criteria and indicator processes, certification and related instruments; and encourage FAO, IPCC, CIFOR, CBD, IUFRO, UNEP and other relevant stakeholders to urgently build upon the harmonization of forest-related definitions in particular encompassing planted forests.
A full meeting report can be accessed at http://www.maf.govt.nz/mafnet/unff-planted-forestry-meeting/report-of-unff-meeting-nz.pdf.