6 November 2015: Silva2015, the joint session of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry and the European Forestry Commission of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), addressed the theme ‘The Value of Forests.’ The session gathered representatives from 39 countries from Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus and North America, who pledged to continue their efforts to build climate change into national forest programmes, and asked UNECE and FAO to develop global forest-related indicators related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), building on existing indicators.
Silva2015 took place from 2-6 November 2015, in Engelberg, Switzerland, and convened during the 3rd European Forest Week. The meeting also encouraged active participation in the work of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF). Many participants expressed strong interest in developing markets and investments for forest ecosystem services, and appraised the Market Discussions held at the meeting as a unique platform for information and experience exchange on forest products markets at the regional level.
The 3rd European Forest Week opened with the announcements of the winners of the FAO photo contest ‘Value of Forests’ and the International Russian Junior Forestry Contest organized by the Russian Federation. FAO also launched its Global Forest Resource Assessment app competition, which challenges people to use the latest FAO data to develop mobile apps that can help better manage forest resources and improve understanding of forests worldwide.
More than 25 side events took place during the week, covering a broad range of forest-related topics, including most recent innovative applications of wood, Canadian and Central African indigenous community forest management, green jobs in the forest sector, and forest biodiversity and wildlife management. [Meeting Documents] [FAO News Release] [UNECE Forestry and Timber Webpage] [European Forest Week Webpage]