2nd World Forum on Urban Forests - Greener, healthier and happier cities for all!

16-20 October 2023, Washington DC, US

Call for abstracts extended to 28th February!

FAO, Arbor Day Foundation, the City of Washington, the United States Forest Service (USFS), the Smithsonian Institute, the Politecnico di Milano, the Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF) and the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) are pleased to announce the 2nd World Forum on Urban Forests!

The Forum will take place in person and will bring together representatives of national and local governments, research and academic institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), urban planners, urban foresters, arborists, landscape architects and designers and professionals from many other sectors to exchange experience and lessons learned, and discuss the importance of building inclusive cities where the goods and services of urban forests and trees are equitably and equally available to all urban dwellers.

More specifically, the objectives of this second edition of the Forum is to:

• Take stock on progress made in the implementation of the Call for Action and Tree Cities of the World Programme, launched at the 1st WFUF in Mantova in 2018 and identify follow-up measures and actions.
• Support the implementation of the Agenda 2030, in particular SDG11, and the New Urban Agenda and optimize actions related to urban ecosystems and green spaces.
• Provide a venue where urban forests and green infrastructure actors and stakeholders can showcase successful initiatives to maximize the contribution of urban forests to health and wellbeing of urban dwellers.
• Bring a wider spectrum of actors on board, especially from sectors that are not traditionally involved, by demonstrating the importance of urban forests and trees to the generation of social and economic benefits.
• Create links between ecosystem restoration opportunities and initiatives with businesses interested in building a solid portfolio of sustainable production and impact investment in and around urban areas.

A call for abstracts is open and will close on Tuesday 28th February 2023. Here is the link to submit your proposal: World Forum on Urban Forests - Call for Abstracts

The programme of the event is available at the link: wfuf_2023_draft_programme.pdf (worldforumonurbanforests.org)

For updates and more information, we invite you to access the dedicated website at: World Forum on Urban Forests - WFUF 2023

Third Latin American and Caribbean Forum on Urban and Peri-urban Forests - Forum 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the City of Guadalajara, Reforestamos México, and ITESO University, are pleased to announce that the Third Latin American and Caribbean Forum on Forests Urban and Peri-urban forests will take place in Guadalajara (Mexico) from 18 to 21 October, 2022.

The Forum will take place in person and will include keynote speeches, presentations and group discussions throughout the week. The Forum will be open to regional experts and to the general public (registration required) who wish to participate. It is intended to be a technical meeting bringing together representatives of national and local governments, academic and research institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academics, urban planners, representatives and experts from national and regional forestry institutions and networks, urban foresters, landscapers and other professionals from the private sector and young people dealing with the planning and management of urban forests and public green spaces. The event will follow the first edition held in Lima in 2017 and the second edition that took place in Bogotá in 2019. The scope of the meeting is to follow up on the results of the first two forums and frame the regional activities related to the management of urban trees and forests in the broader framework of the results of the “First World Forum on Urban Forests” (ie the Call to Action and the Tree Cities of the World programme).

In particular, the objective of the event is to highlight positive examples of planning, design and management approaches that cities with diverse cultures, forms, structures and histories have implemented in the Region to optimize the contribution of urban forests to sustainable urban development. In particular, this third edition will focus on the current and potential contribution of urban forests and trees to the economy and livelihoods of urban communities in Latin America.

The pre-registration is open together with a call for abstracts. We invite you to access the following link to pre-register and submit your proposal, if you want: https://forms.gle/cmaYjZA1KkGP93QW6 

Tree Cities of the World - Programme

Now more than ever, trees and forests are a vital component of healthy, liveable, and sustainable communities around the globe. Urban forests help define a sense of place and well-being where people live, work, play, and learn. 

FAO calls upon cities to invest in Forest-based solutions towards a more sustainable and resilient model of urban development. The Call for Action developed by FAO and its partners in preparation to the First World Forum on Urban Forests (WFUF) is intended to provide a vision of how cities around the world could use forests and trees to make cities greener, healthier and happier places to live.

As a first step towards the achievement of this goal, we invite your community to become part of the Tree Cities of the World (TCW) programme, an international effort to recognize cities and towns committed to ensuring that urban forests and trees are properly maintained, sustainably managed, and duly celebrated. This is your opportunity to connect with cities around the world in a new network dedicated to sharing and adopting the most successful approaches to managing community trees and forests.

In February 2020, 59 cities earned the TCW recognition! To celebrate this achievement, on 29-30 October 2020 FAO and Arbor Day Foundation held the first-ever Tree Cities of the World Conference. The virtual conference represented an opportunity for cities to share their success stories, learn about global urban forestry initiatives, and connect with peers from around the world. On that occasion, cities that had received the recognition as TCW in 2019 had the opportunity to present their achievements and sessions facilitated by national programme leaders were organized to share information about ongoing regional initiatives related to the issue and provide information on how to apply for Tree Cities of the World recognition in 2020. Click here to watch the video celebrating the first group of Tree Cities of the World!

The results of the 2020 TCW were officially launched in March 2021. For more details on this read: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1391896/icode/

The full list of recognized cities can be found at: www.treecitiesoftheworld.org

Click here to join the Tree Cities of the World programme now!  

Trees for the Cities D-Group - Network

Urban and peri-urban forestry (UPF) has been gaining attention in recent years as a valuable tool for addressing a number of urban challenges in the development of a more sustainable and resilient city model. In response, FAO has created the Trees for the Cities discussion group to meet the rising demand for a dialogue platform to facilitate regular exchanges and conversations worldwide, regionally and locally among the urban forestry community.

This DGroup fills the spaces between meetings of international and regional fora concerning management of trees and forests in urban areas and involving researchers, organizations, institutions, and city managers and administrators. This discussion group can promote and foster the integration of UPF in the governance of cities and raise awareness of the wide range of benefits that trees and forests can provide to urban communities.

Click here to join the Discussion Group now!