More than 1,200 participants from government, business, civil society and the research community gathered on 23–25 April in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to take part in the 3^rd Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit (APRS) 2018. Co-hosted by the Indonesian Government with the support of the Australian Government, and in partnership with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the event followed up on the success of the APRS 2016 held in Brunei Darussalam and the APRS 2014 held in Australia. The APRS 2018 provided a forum for governmental and non-governmental participants from 40 countries across Asia-Pacific to discuss the most pressing issues facing the region’s forestry sector.

ASIA-PACIFIC’S RICH FORESTS

Accounting for half of the world’s population, the Asia-Pacific region contains one-fifth of global forest area – 723 million hectares. In many parts of the region, this leads to intense pressures on forests and complex challenges in forest management with the rapidly growing needs and demands of this economically vibrant region.

This year, APRS brought together decision-makers from different countries and sectors to generate ideas for practical action on forest conservation and to help achieve sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region. The event highlighted national experiences and best practices in the areas of community forestry; ecotourism and conservation of biodiversity; forest finance, investment and trade; forests in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs); mangroves and blue carbon; production forests; and restoration and sustainable management of peatlands. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) initiatives were highlighted on both days with interventions from REDD+ team leaders and coordinators from different government institutions, UN agencies and other organizations.

FOCUS ON FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORATION

REDD+ successes in the Asia-Pacific region were especially highlighted during the session on sustainable management of production forests. The session focused on such topics as reduced impact logging, forest certification, forest landscape management and forests restoration that are among the best practices of sustainable forest management including in production forests. During the session, Tiina Vahanen, REDD+/ National Forest Monitoring (NFM) cluster coordinator, provided a global perspective on restoring degraded forests landscapes and presented FAO’s work on forest restoration around the world and especially in the Asia-Pacific.

“Forest landscape restoration could make a significant contribution to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) both globally and across the Asia-Pacific region,” said Ms Vahanen. “By including forest and landscape restoration practices into their REDD+ national strategies, countries can restore functionality of degraded lands and forests and thus also increase their productivity.”

The summit participants noted various opportunities and needs for forest restoration in the region. Many countries have already designated large areas of land for forest restoration. While there are challenges in data quality which prevent the understanding of the exact potential, improvement in forest monitoring systems through new technologies will help countries in the region in assessing results of their efforts.

INDONESIA DEMONSTRATES POSITIVE PROGRESS BEING MADE ON PEATLANDS

Peatlands received special attention with two sessions devoted to discussing policies and implementation. Peatlands are increasingly being recognized for their importance for a range of values, including their huge carbon storage capacity and the high risk of greenhouse gas emissions release that happens when they are disturbed by drainage or fire.

Some excellent technical progress has been made on mapping the extent and condition of peatlands. Our knowledge of how to manage peatlands has increased greatly in the past few years through this improved attention and applied research.  FAO has contributed to this through studies conducted in collaboration with experts on peatland, and reports produced on climate-responsible peatlands management and improving the sustainability of peatlands uses.

REGION’S FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORATION CHALLENGES AND FAO SUPPORT

Monitoring peatlands, as well as assessing changes in forest carbon stocks from forest restoration can be indeed a complex process. For every REDD+ engaged country, national forest monitoring becomes a crucial step - first to establish benchmarks on deforestation, carbon stocks, and eventually to detect annual changes in physical data such as forest cover, forest inventory, volumes of carbon stock or in the social setting.

For the Asia-Pacific region, where forests spread through more than 40 countries, regional exchanges become a crucial tool to succeed in any of the REDD+ elements. Together with its UN-REDD partners (UNDP and UN Environment), FAO works intensively to develop capacity at the country level, and then facilitate south-south knowledge sharing and collaborations.

One of the latest regional knowledge exchanges on the topic was the Pacific Regional Workshop on Forest Monitoring, held on 5–9 December 2017 at PNG National Forest Inventory Office in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Hosted by the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority and funded by the European Union, Global Environment Facility and the UN-REDD Programme, the workshop brought together a group of forest monitoring experts from the Pacific region and Indonesia, to learn new technologies, share achievements and challenges on forest monitoring in the Pacific. During the workshop, 27 participants from 7 countries and international organizations drafted an Action and Support Plan on National Forest Monitoring in their respective countries and established a network of forest monitoring experts within the region.

According to Julian Fox, National Forest Monitoring Team Leader at FAO:

“Papua New Guinea has built a strong capacity on forest monitoring and established a robust Measurement, Reporting and Verification system for REDD+ in recent years.  It is fantastic that the country is now sharing their experience with the Pacific, and FAO is very pleased to support this excellent initiative; as we know, south-south collaboration is one of the most effective means for capacity development.”

Useful links:

• More about the 3rd Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit
• More about FAO REDD+
• More about UN-REDD Programme
• More about REDD+ in Papua New Guinea
• More about FAO work in Asia-Pacific

For more information, please contact:

Adam Gerrand 

Forestry Officer, Asia-Pacific,
Forestry Department, FAO, Bangkok, Thailand
[email protected]

Ben Vickers

Forestry Officer, Regional Advisor for Asia-Pacific,
Forestry Department, FAO, Bangkok, Thailand
[email protected]

Hitofumi Abe

Chief Technical Advisor,
EU/FAO PNG National Forest Inventory Project & UN-REDD PNG National Programme.
PNG Forest Authority, Forest Policy and Planning Directorate
[email protected]

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