About the Collaborative Partnership on Forests

What is the CPF?

The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) is an informal, voluntary arrangement among 16 international organizations and secretariats with substantial programmes on forests. These agencies share their experiences and build on them to produce new benefits for their respective constituencies.

Members collaborate to streamline and align their work and to find ways of improving forest management and conservation and the production and trade of forest products. The members are also forming close and valuable strategic partnerships with one another, benefiting from shared expertise and pooled resources. 

CPF mission and functions

The mission of the CPF is to help enhance the contribution of all types of forests and trees outside forests to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other internationally agreed development goals, promote the sustainable management of all types of forests and to strengthen long-term political commitment to that end.

The core functions of the CPF are to:

• Support the work of United Nations Forum  on Forests and its member countries;
• Provide scientific and technical advice to the Forum and governing bodies of other CPF members, at their request;
• Enhance coherence, cooperation as well as policy and programme coordination at all levels, including through joint programming and the submission of coordinated proposals to members’ governing bodies, consistent with their mandates;
• Promote the implementation of the UN Forest Instrument and the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests as well as the contribution of forests and trees to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other major forest-related agreements.

Formation

CPF is an innovative voluntary interagency partnership on forests that was established in April 2001 in response to an invitation issued in the Resolution 2000/35 by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) that established the International Arrangement on Forests and the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF). ECOSOC gave further guidance for CPF through its resolution 2015/33 by, inter alia, reaffirming the principles and defining the core functions of the CPF as a component of the International Arrangement on Forests.

The CPF endorsed its Strategic Vision towards 2030 at the meeting of CPF principals, on 27 January 2020, to provide strategic direction to the work of the Partnership, as well as a solid framework for its future workplans and activities until 2030.

The CPF Policy Document formalizes the working modalities, and develops procedures for its effective functioning and operation. The document outlines the mission, functions, membership, delivery mechanisms of the Partnership and contains the Rules of Procedure.