New R4D partnership to launch at XV World Forestry Congress

We are pleased to announce that FTA is launching as a new partnership during XV World Forestry Congress (WFC)!

After a series of high-level talks, a new set of partners is signing a charter document to propel toward the SDGs and further a research agenda on forests, trees and agroforestry. Alongside with the official launch of the new FTA, we are also going to be present with a number of very intersting side events.

Come and join us! Here below are the descriptions of sessions and links to register!

Building a green, healthy and resilient future with forests: the role of forestry research for sustainable development

Tuesday May 3rd / 18:30–20:00 KST / Register here!

Updated agenda and speaker list

Building a Green, Healthy and Resilient Future with Forests requires strong knowledge to anticipate future changes and shocks and their impacts on ecosystems, economies and livelihoods. Such knowledge also provides a basis for the development of strong systemic and better coordinated policies to prepare for and address these changes. The purpose of this session is to discuss the role of “forest and tree research for development” in building a Green, Healthy and Resilient Future. Forests and trees, like never before, are called to play an important role towards many different objectives. It will focus on key insights from a decade of research within former FTA, as well as key insights by IUFRO on current major forest research frontiers.

The session will look into emerging issues, as well as main research and implementation gaps lying ahead of us along the forestry research-to-development spectrum. Specific attention will be devoted to what it takes for science to make an impact, focusing on science for decision processes and the means by which knowledge is constructed with and appropriated by the various categories of actors.

It will be the occasion for partners to launch and present together the new FTA partnership, as a follow-up of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (2011-2021).

The Economics of Ecosystem Restoration (TEER) initiative

Monday, 2 May 2022 / 18:00–19:30 KST / Register here!

Updated agenda and speaker list

The lack of consistent measurable information on the costs and benefits of ecosystem restoration projects and initiatives hinders local implementation (unclear local costs and local returns) and investments on restoration activities (unclear global goods and ecosystem returns) and therefore restoration is hardly  reaching its potential to contribute to  many of the SDGs and UNFCCC goals. To fill this gap FAO initiated the Economics of Ecosystem Restoration (TEER) initiative with the CGIAR Research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) led by CIFOR, the World Resource Institute (WRI), and other member organizations of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration (GPFLR), including the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD)/ Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (FERI), Bioversity International, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Tropenbos International, and WeForest.

The TEER initiative has developed a common protocol to collect standardized data on local and other costs and benefits of restoration projects across countries and biomes. The ultimate objective of the TEER initiative is to constitute a global database that could serve as a reference point for governments, international donors, private investors, project managers, scientists and other stakeholders, for the ex-ante estimation of costs and benefits of future restoration projects in all major biomes and across a wide range of contexts worldwide, based on information from comparable projects on which data has been collected through a standardized framework. The purpose of the event is to present the initiative, and to discuss with potential data providers and users how to foster data collection and the type of TEER products that could be generated by this initiative.

Youth proposals for innovative technologies in the Asia-Pacific forestry sector

Tuesday, 3 May 2022 / 12:30–14:00 KST / Register here!

Updated agenda and speaker list

Young people have shown their capacity to generate and spearhead trans-national mobilization to address environmental challenges such as climate change and advance sustainable development. They are instrumental in shaping a sustainable future including: by taking leadership roles and generating momentum through collaboration and social media, by transforming rigid institutions from within and participating to the uptake and upscale of innovative technologies in the forest sector. This is why FAO and FTA, through an open call for contributions, invited students and young professionals to contribute actively to the roadmap being developed on the use of innovative technologies in forestry and forest management in the Asia-Pacific region, with key recommendations (policy and concrete actions) for their application in sustainable forest management. This exercise resulted in a FAO / FTA co-publication, accessible online, which gathers the best youth contributions.

Promoting green economy growth in natural rubber systems and beyond

Wednesday, 4 May 2022 / 12:30–14:00 KST / Register here!

Updated agenda and speaker list

Natural rubber is a strategic commodity predominantly produced by millions of small farmers that sustains around 40 million people around the globe, with a supply chain worth generating more than 300 billion dollars. Natural rubber is emblematic of the opportunities offered by renewable materials for green economy growth and the benefits they provide for sustainable development. Natural rubber has a key role to play for both adaptation and mitigation of climate change as an important land user, a producer of renewable materials, and as a major economic activity. Growing global demand can cause resource scarcity problems, price volatility and potential to cause instability in many regions. Major business, economic, and societal shifts towards sustainable production and consumption, embracing the circular economy would underlie transition to 1.5 degree pathway. Global production can be safeguarded and sustainably increased on a lasting basis by strengthening climate resilience and can successfully contribute to climate mitigation goals. Widening value addition of natural rubber which goes into more than 5000 end-products will improve livelihoods of small farmers. Adoption of sustainable practices together with the implementation of an efficient traceability system will boost sustainable rubber economy.

This side event aims for an exchange of views on low-carbon green growth for promoting sustainable production and consumption of natural rubber through collaborative partnerships with the involvement of governments, the private sector and international organizations.

Asia-Pacific Forest Sector Outlook: Roadmaps for primary forest conservation and innovative forest technologies

Friday, 6 May 2022 / 12:00–13:30 KST / Register here!

The ‘Third Asia-Pacific Forest Sector Outlook Study’ (APFSOS-III),¹ launched in June 2019 at the Asia-Pacific Forestry Week in South Korea, highlighted two important areas of concern for the forest sector in the region: primary forests and forest technologies.

First, of the region’s 723 million hectares of forest, only 19 percent (140 million hectares) is primary, which is much lower than the global average (32 percent), and this share is still declining. The conservation of primary forests and the sustainable management of other naturally regenerated forests are urgently needed to safeguard biodiversity, ecosystem services and the quality and health of the physical environment in the Asia-Pacific region.

Second, it is critical to improve our understanding of the opportunities and challenges for sustainable forest management associated with the application of innovative technologies in the forest sector, including Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), processing technologies, and new wood-based products.

As a follow-up of APFSOS-III, and under the impetus of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC), FAO and CIFOR, lead center of the CGIAR research programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), worked two inter-related roadmaps² for the Asia-Pacific region on: (i) primary forest conservation and (ii) innovative forest technologies, including key recommendations on policy and concrete actions. These roadmaps, informed by science, have been developed through a participative process involving key regional stakeholders and technical experts and include a substantial participation of students and young professionals.

This side-event will present the main findings of these two roadmaps and aim at discussing with stakeholders the key recommendations emerging from this work and how to move forward with implementation.