The international conference “Working across Sectors to Halt Deforestation and Increase Forest Area -- from Aspiration to Action” will take place in Rome, Italy, from 20-22 February 2018. The event will convene at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters and is organized by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF).

Stakeholders from government, the private sector and civil society will gather to discuss the challenges of halting and reversing deforestation. They will explore ways to accelerate progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)15.2, which calls for halting deforestation by 2020; and target 1.1of the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 (UNSPF), calling for reversing the loss of forest cover and increasing forest cover area by 3% by 2030.

The Conference takes place before the 13th session of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF). UNFF 13 will focus on a policy dialogue addressing global and national actions to achieve the SDG and UNSPF targets, taking into consideration that the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) will review SDG 15 in 2018. Through UNFF 13, the Conference intends to provide input to the HLPF.

In particular, the conference will, inter alia: review key drivers of deforestation; identify policy challenges to achieving the SDG and forest targets; identify lessons learned in promoting forest smart activities; discuss opportunities to reforestation, afforestation and forest landscape restoration; and provide recommendations on further policy development and governance approaches to upscale progress on the targets.