As popularity rose over the course of 2008 on the role of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) in mitigating climate change, some involved in the debate at the international level began to lose sight of the full range of functions of the forests or the opinions of the multitude of stakeholders. 

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 Forum, hosted by the World Bank and organized in collaboration with the TFD, IUCN, WRI, WBCSD, brought together nearly 150 international business leaders as well as representatives of the indigenous communities, international NGOs, government representatives and the conservation community in Washington, DC. Over the course of the Forum, participants defined five principles that should guide climate negotiators: 

1. Ensure that forest-related climate change options support sustainable development in both forest-rich and forest-poor countries.
2. Tackle the drivers of deforestation that lie outside the forests sector.
3. Support transparent, inclusive, and accountable forest governance.
4. Encourage local processes to clarify and strengthen tenure, property, and carbon rights.
5. Provide substantial additional funding to build the capacity to put the above principles into practice

PROFOR’s contribution to this event ensured that stakeholder participation was balanced (by helping to finance the travel of Indigenous Peoples and small-holder forestry association members) and fully participatory (through translations).

The resulting multi-stakeholder consensus statement entitled "Beyond REDD: the Role of Forests in Climate Change,"  was presented at IUCN's World Congress in Barcelona in October and to delegates at the 14th Conference of the Parties (COP 14) in Poznan in December 2008. Its principles aimed to influence the outcomes at COP 15 in Copenhagen in December 2009, to incorporate SFM in climate change discussions.