"Heart of Iron," a documentary about mining in the Congo Basin rainforest, will be screened at an event in Washington DC sponsored by World Wildlife Fund, the World Bank Oil, Gas and Mining unit and the Africa Region Sustainable Development Department.

The Central Africa Forests Commission and the World Bank held a two day conference in Kinshasa, DRC, to discuss findings from a study on Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin. Presentations from the conference are available on our website.

PROFOR participated in several panel discussions at the International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition which will be held at FAO on May 13-15, 2013.

Focus: Tracking Impact

The 10th session of the United Nations Forum on Forests gathered forest policy makers and experts in Istanbul. PROFOR staff spoke at a number of side events on landscape restoration, forest financing and investing in locally controlled forestry.

March 21 marks the beginning of spring in the Northern hemisphere but local tree planting activities will be encouraged worldwide to celebrate a new International Day proclaimed recently by the UN General Assembly. 

PROFOR's 2013 Advisory Board Meeting was held at World Bank headquarter offices in Washington DC on March 15, 2013.

PROFOR co-hosted the launch of the State of Watershed Payments 2012 published by Forest trends/ Ecosystem Marketplace, a comprehensive inventory of initiatives around the world that are paying individuals and communities to revive or preserve water-friendly features of the landscape. Recording of the launch and presentations available online.

This collection of 23 articles focuses on the potential of private investment to work in the interest of tropical forests.

Exploring the power of investors and companies to help save the world’s forests and fight climate change

Forest Day 6 and Agriculture, Landscapes and Livelhoods Day were held this year under a common banner, during the annual United Nations climate change conference in Doha, Qatar.

Focus: Forest-friendly Growth

The 21st  Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO21) and the Third World Forest Week (WFW), were held in Rome, Italy on 24-28 September 2012.
The main theme of COFO21/WFW was ‘Forests: a green pathway for human development’.

Focus: A Checklist for Change

The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) has launched its inaugural Wangari Maathai Award to honor and commemorate an extraordinary woman who championed forest issues around the world. The USD 20,000 award will be given in recognition of outstanding contributions made by an individual to preserve, restore and sustainably manage forests and to communicate the key role forests play in rural livelihoods and the environment across generations.

Twenty years after a landmark UN conference on the environment and development, policy makers will be convening in Rio, Brazil in June. The Rio+20 conference and side events --including an online dialogue open to the public -- offer an opportunity to put forests at the center of sustainable development plans for the planet.

Our periodic newsletter focuses this month on "Making It Work for Communities." It provides a preview of upcoming publications and events and keeps you informed of new developments at PROFOR.

PROFOR's 2012 advisory board meeting was held at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization office in Rome. Background documents including a summary of knowledge activity progress in 2011 are available on our website.

Panelists, including PROFOR's Tuukka Castren,discussed opportunities and challenges in using ICT in smallholder agriculture and forestry. The e-sourcebook draws on Forest Governance 2.0: A primer on ICTs and governance published last June.

Forest Day 5 was held in Durban, South Africa on 4 December 2011, to coincide with climate change talks. Read related content and speeches.

This one-day symposium provided a global platform for representatives from the research and development sector to openly discuss the challenges and opportunities faced in the sustainable use of dry forests, within broader agricultural landscapes.

In this Update:
Focus: From Forest to Farm; Heads Up; New Activities; Around PROFOR

Organized by CIFOR in association with leading business groups, NGOs, development agencies and the Government of Indonesia, with co-funding from PROFOR and other funding partners, the event provided a platform for 1000 leaders of all stakeholder groups to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by Indonesia in the sustainable use of its forests.

Our periodic newsletter focuses this month on "The Business of Trees." It provides a preview of upcoming publications and events, lists newly approved knowledge activities and keeps you informed of new developments at PROFOR.

The World Bank's Sustainable Development website focuses this month on forests with a feature story that gives some prominence to PROFOR knowledge and videos.

The United Nations made "Forests for People" the theme of the 2011 International Year of Forests, to celebrate the central role people play in conserving and managing forest resources. This initiative has also prompted the Collaborative Partnership on Forests to put together a calendar of thematic press releases exploring all sorts of forest facets.

The three-day event in May explored the potential for private sector investment in trees and landscape restoration opportunities in Africa. Forum proceedings, presentations and background papers are now available online.

From policy makers to private investors, from researchers to smallholder farmers, many are looking for better ways to increase food security in a changing climate.

A meeting aimed at discussing guidance frameworks for providing information and assessing forest and REDD+ governance (following up on the Stockholm symposium on forest governance indicators held in September 2010).

A one-day workshop to discuss the preliminary findings of a World Bank Knowledge Product on biochar and its application in a smallholder developing country context.

An event organized by Forest Trends in Washington DC

In this Update
Focus: The Intensification Challenge; Heads Up; New Activities; Around Profor

PROFOR's annual advisory board meeting was held at the World Bank office in Brussels.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 the International Year of Forests. The kickoff event was held February 2, at the Ninth Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF-9) in New York.

PROFOR co-hosted two well-attended sessions at Forest Day 4 in Cancun. One brought to the fore previous analysis on the potential for forest landscape restoration to help countries adapt to climate change and curb greenhouse gas emissions. The second focused on governance and illegal logging.

This two-day symposium gathered about 45 participants (country representatives, donor partners and NGOs) to advance the development of practical and feasible frameworks for assessing and monitoring the quality of forest governance.

PROFOR's 2010 Advisory Board meeting was held at the FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

To help consolidate a multi-stakeholder vision on the role of forests can play in climate change and beyond, PROFOR leant its support to the Global Forest Leaders Forum, the culmination of a nine-month dialogue process organized by The Forests Dialogue

"The Millennium Development Goals and national forest policy processes"