Forest finance

Financing sustainable forest management has been a standing item at relevant global fora, in particular, the UNFF sessions. At the special session of its ninth session, held on 30 October 2009, the Forum adopted a resolution on means of implementation for sustainable forest management, by which the Forum established an open-ended intergovernmental ad hoc expert group (AHEG) and a facilitative process (FP).

This Resolution specifically mandates the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Ad Hoc Expert Group to make proposals on strategies to mobilize resources from all sources to support the implementation of sustainable forest management (SFM), the achievement of the global objectives on forests and the implementation of the non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests (NLBI), including, inter alia, strengthening and improving access to funds and establishing a voluntary global forest fund. The Forum also adopted a number of functions for the FP to catalyze implementation of the SFM, NLBI and achievement of the GOFs. The results of the work of AHEG, as well as the FP have to be provided to the UNFF10 in 2013, in order to enable the Forum to make a meaningful decision on forest financing. 

Based on the report of the first meeting of AHEG (AHEG1), held on September 2010 in Nairobi, UNFF9 adopted a resolution in which the Forum agreed to undertake a series of intersessional activities on forest financing in preparation for the AHEG2 in 2012, and UNFF10 in 2013. Accordingly, governments, major groups and regional processes are invited to provide their substantive submissions on forest financing strategies/options and the advantage and disadvantage of these options by 1 March 2012.

The members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests are also invited to provide their collective and individual contributions on this issue to UNFF10 in 2013. In addition, the CPF Advisory Group on Finance (AGF) is requested to undertake a major role and update and expand its 2008 study on forest financing flows. The UNFFS is coordinating the work of the CPF/AGF on this matter and the Group has already agreed on its work plan and the steps that have to be taken to respond to the invitation of the Forum. In preparation for AHEG2, the outcome of this work should be first provided to the Organization-Led Initiative to be held by the CPF  in 2012.

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