Participants took stock of progress and challenges to date in meeting the goals of the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests, while highlighting innovative areas of action.
The nearly USD 700 million Work Program approved focuses heavily on chemicals and waste at a time when the GEF hopes to prove to the multilateral community it has the capacity to serve as the financial mechanism for a global plastics treaty and that it could play a significant role in realizing the vision of the Global Framework on Chemicals.
Members reaffirmed the central role of sustainable tropical timber trade in meeting global environmental and development objectives. Yet, despite high global funding levels for forests, clarity on how these ambitions will be financed remains limited.