The Twenty-fifth Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO)

The Twenty-fifth Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO)Opening Remarks by
Dr. QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
5 October (Monday) 2020, 10:00-11:00 AM Rome TimeAs delivered

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Dear colleagues, 

Good morning!

1. I am so pleased to be with Madame Inger Anderson again. We have been on board together since I became FAO DG. As I always said, we should focus on doing, not talking. I, myself, have supported with biodiversity, forestry related environmental issues within the mandate of FAO. It is a larger picture and we are talking agriculture at large.

2. I am also pleased to be with you at this Twenty-fifth Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry, the first-ever virtual gathering in the committee’s history of fifty years.

3. This year, we celebrate the 75^th anniversary of FAO and a few days later that of the United Nations. Therefore, we really have to re-think and re-design our activities and actions to be in line with the original aspirations of FAO. Two institutions that, more than ever, need to be efficient, inclusive and responsive.

4. This is the reason that, in the 14 months since I took office as Director-General, we put special focus on building a modern and dynamic FAO that is fully aligned with its original vision and mandate. Meanwhile, we are strengthening our inclusive partnership with other sister UN agencies, key players, civil societies, private sector, Members and farmers on the ground.  

5. We established a modular and flexible structure, which optimizes cross-sectoral collaboration and shatters silos.

6. We are creating an agile Organization that serves its Members to achieve the “four betters”: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life. I always say that we only have a forever better, as we do not have the forever best. Maybe, you can have the best for just a short moment. But you cannot have the best forever. 

7. Better production is not just for the developing countries, but also for the developed nations. Better nutrition is not only for the famers, producers and traders, but also for every individual in all sectors. Better environment is not only in the mandate of FAO and UNEP, but also for all the international organizations and UN Members. Better life is for farmers, citizens, consumers and human beings as a whole. A better life is not only a matter of demanding food and nutrition, but also a necessity of living in a good environment and enjoying many other forms of happiness.     

8. We are accelerating our efforts to creating a digital FAO and enhancing our digital services to Members– including through virtual meetings like this one.

9. So today, at this Committee, we have our Chair connected from Asia, our Vice-Chair linked from Europe and participants from all around the globe! In the past, many participants might not join the meeting due to flight delay, lack of travel budget, traffic jam and some other unexpected arrangement of logistics. Now, sitting in your office or home, you can 100 percent be present at the meeting. This is the new digital world! 

10. An open, innovative mind-set, coupled with modern technologies is enabling us to reach and engage with more Members, partners and stakeholders than ever before. 

11. This was the case when we launched this year’s State of the World’s Forests, FAO’s first digital flagship publication back in June.

Ladies and gentlemen,

12. The pandemic has shown that forests can serve as a safety net for human being, the poor and vulnerable in times of crisis, offering a huge potential in “building back better”. 

13. We have to look at a larger picture, not just focusing with a specific group. 

14. The world’s forests are among our most precious common heritage with eco-systematic, economic and social impacts.

15. Forests are profound for life, livelihood and happiness. 

16. And they are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals – from poverty eradication to zero hunger, climate change and biodiversity.

17. Last week, we had an UN Biodiversity Summit in New York virtually. It was an honor for me speak on behalf of relevant UN agencies to talk about this topic, from the perspectives of a larger picture: environment, foods, research, education, business model and innovation. 

18. The theme of this session of COFO is so timely and meaningful, as “Forests and the SDG Decade of Action – Solutions for climate change, biodiversity and people”

19. But deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming rates, with urbanization, industrialization, especially agricultural expansion accounting for a large proportion of deforestation. 

20. It has been happening not just within the past twenty years, but already for several thousands of years. Due to the increase of population, wars and conflicts, people had to burn the primitive forests. Then, it came the times of industrialization and urbanization. During these periods, without enough innovative technologies, at beginning it was difficult to measure the exact proportion of deforestation caused by agricultural expansion. We have to look at this issue from a historical point of view based on multiple dimensions. 

21. How to increase agricultural production and improve food security without reducing forest areas is one of the great challenges of our times.

22. Halting deforestation and scaling up reforestation, therefore, must be a central building block to the sustainable transformation of food systems.

23. FAO is proud to co-lead a UN system-wide effort to Turn the Tide on Deforestation, as requested by the UN Secretary-General.

24. We will hear more about this during this week, including at the High-Level Dialogue on Deforestation tomorrow morning. I know Madame Inger Anderson will have a lot of new ideas and actions on the way.  

25. We will also hear how FAO, together with UNDP and UNEP, has been supporting over 60 countries in reducing deforestation and forest degradation, through the UN-REDD programme.

26. Our work on forest law enforcement, governance and trade help countries combat illegal logging. 

27. We help to promote trade in timber, which is sustainably produced by small-scale enterprises.

28. FAO is also at the forefront of supporting countries access and analyse Big Data on changes happening to their forests and landscapes.

29. For example, we developed SEPAL, the System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring.

30. SEPAL is an innovative open-source software, which helps countries access the vast amount of data available via satellites at an increasingly high resolution. 

31. Today, it has more than 5,000 active users in 180 countries and territories.

32. This collaborative work bears tangible results: FAO’s latest Global Forest Resources Assessment, launched in July, was the most accurate ever, with many countries producing new data and considerably refining their monitoring and reporting on forests. 

33. Such improvements are critical to ensuring informed, effective decision-making on forests and land use, and they are part of our focus on big data as a game-changer. 

34. That is why we launched the Hand-in-Hand geospatial platform with a large and rich set of data on food, agriculture, socio-economic, and natural resources to help strengthen evidence-based decision-making in the food and agriculture at large. It is a platform with data ownership belonging to individual entities. FAO just offers a platform for various stakeholders to release and share information with end users and Members.  

35. The platform includes over one million geospatial layers and thousands of statistics series on over ten domains linked to food and agriculture - including forestry.

Ladies and gentlemen,

36. Transformational change is needed in the way we manage our forests and their biodiversity, as well as on how we produce and consume our foods and interact with nature.

37. There are clear links between deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate change. 

38. To address these challenges, we need a stronger engagement with the forestry sector to ensure optimal health for people, animals and the environment as part of a One Health approach.

39. FAO’s Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme is spearheading such efforts and at the same time strengthening wildlife management and enhancing food security of local communities.

40. Investing in sustainable forest supply chains and ecosystem restoration is effective in alleviating poverty, generating employment and building back better.

41. Improving forest-based livelihood, prosperity and human well-being is the aim of the Forest and Farm Facility. 

42. With this Facility, FAO is working with over 350 forest and farm producer organizations, increasing their access to financial services and integrating them into value chains and markets. 

43. More than 25 million people in 30 countries have directly or indirectly benefitted from this – including during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

44. FAO has also helped to restore the productivity of degraded lands and the livelihoods of local communities in the Sahel. Our support to the Great Green Wall Initiative has resulted in some 50 000 hectares of land being restored.

45. Together with UNEP and the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, we have prepared an ambitious action plan to jointly restore 100 million hectares of degraded lands, sequester 250 million tons of CO₂ and create 10 million green jobs.

46. And FAO is pleased to co-lead the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration with UNEP. 

47. On 18 September, we had the virtual launch of the FAO Green Cities Initiative and its Action Plan to transform agri-food systems, end hunger and improve nutrition.

48. By contributing to climate change mitigation and promoting sustainable resource management, cities are very essential in “building back better”, as cities have the capacity, technologies, investment, information and purchasing power. Cities can be the promoter and engine of transformation. 

49. In 2050, 68 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities, with 90 percent of the increase occurring in Africa and Asia, which will lead to greater opportunities and challenges. 

50. About 70 percent of our food supply is consumed by urban dwellers - the number of that is steadily on the rise.

51. Today cities consume almost 80 percent of the total energy produced in the world and are responsible for 70 percent of global waste. Cities also account for about 70 percent of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.

52. Starting with 100 cities around the world, we hope to have 1000 cities join this initiative by 2030. Not just for sustainably produced healthy food, but also to contribute to the ecological management of water resources, sustainable land use and the expansion of green spaces, including urban forestry and high-tech-intensive farming, in considering economic, social and ecological gains comprehensively.

53. With only ten years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we need a fundamental change of mindset and remodelling our business approaches. That is why I have a high expectation on the next year’s World Forestry Conference. You have to rethink your ways to start a new journey to 2030 and beyond.  

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

54. There is a Chinese proverb that says: One generation grows the trees in whose shade another generation rests.

55. For the past five decades, COFO has brought us together in identifying emerging forest policies, technical solutions and appropriate actions to move forward. 

56. In some ways, this is akin to planting trees by one generation for the next! I very much appreciate you as forestry professionals with big passion and long commitment. For people working in the sector of crops, it may just take five years to see the tangible results. However, for forestry professionals, working in breading, research and plantation, you grow trees for one generation and only people after one or two generations would be able to get the shade. It is a long-term commitment.   

57. And the success of our work today is crucial for shaping a better tomorrow.

58. We must scale-up our actions to realize the potential of forests, fruit trees, food diversity and others. We will have to define what would be the specific significance forestry have on the society. Forestry has different categories. We will have to figure out what is the linkage between each category of forestry with society, environment and human being.  

59. I encourage you not only to plant more trees but also design more comprehensively and holistically, get more key players on board, to jump for picking apples rather than sitting on the ground for it. Let us aim high and do concrete! Together! Be Innovative, Be Cohesive and Be Great!

60. For a hunger-free world, where forests provide solutions for climate, biodiversity, healthy foods and people! 

Thank you!