XIV World Forest Congress 2015

Plenary sessions

Monday 7 September

High Level Dialogue on the Global Forest Agenda: Forests are vital for implementing the post-2015 development agenda
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Forests are vital for implementing the post-2015 development agenda. The high-level dialogue will explore the kinds of investments in forests, forestry and forest communities that will best contribute to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the future climate-change regime.

Launch of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015
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Find out how forests have changed over the last 25 years when the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2015 is launched at the XIV World Forestry Congress. Updated every five years, the world’s foremost global forest data assessment shows the state of sustainable forest management, and what percentage of forests has been lost or gained and at what rate, along with other trends.

Forests and People: Investing in a Sustainable Future
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The opening session, moderated by Matt Frei, will address the following questions:

  • What is the role of public and private investments?
  • What drives investments in forests and how to minimize risks for investors?
  • How to achieve sustainable land use investments; partnerships, investments in forestry for poverty eradication?

Tuesday 8 September

Investments that will help build a resilient future
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The main purpose of this event is to showcase the role of forests and the potential they hold for building a resilient society. The session will be guided by the following questions:

  • What is climate resilient economy and society and how can forests help building it, at various levels, regional, national and local?
  • What is needed to strengthen the role of young people and women in building more resilient society through forestry, in particular at the community level? What kinds of partnerships are needed?
  • How can forests and trees contribute to food security, livelihoods and resilience, both in growing cities and rural areas?
  • What role is for forests in contributing to the new, transformational vision of the post 2015 development agenda – a global perspective.

TREE-Talk (TED Talk style), Trevor Abrahams, Secretary-General of the XIV WFC 

Wed 9 September

Inspiring solutions for a sustainable future
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The session will explore new mechanisms and tools that could help to build a sustainable future and to make such vision to become reality.

It will be organized in a form of a moderated panel discussion, where the following questions will be discussed: 

  • What new mechanisms and tools exist at the national level that Governments have developed recently, that integrate forests and forestry in the broader national development policies and strategies?
  • How are international processes and debates related to natural resources coming up with innovative ways to address, through forestry, the global challenges such as food insecurity, land degradation, water scarcity, loss of biodiversity and climate change?
  • How to further integrate economic, social and environmental aspects around forestry and, moreover, how to integrate forestry better with other disciplines and forms of lands use?
  • What is the critical agent missing to make forestry more sustainable? Is it funding, human skills, education, knowledge, etc.? And what can be done to overcome the challenges – in concrete terms?

WFC Forests and People Photo Contest Winning Award
TREE Talk (TED Talk style): Yemi Adeyeye, Student at University of British Columbia, Canada, Citizen of Nigeria: Perspective from Youth 

Thurs 10 September

Draft Congress statement
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Friday 11 September

Round tables: The way forward
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Forest information

Building momentum for community-based forestry, forest and farm organizations including launch of FAO-We Effect partnership

Youth

Monitoring and reporting

Forest Landscape Restoration Cluster