Summary
On Tuesday, 17 January 2017, a Working Group of the UN Forum on Forests continued discussions at UN Headquarters in New York City, focused on drafting a Strategic Plan and Programme of Work for the next four years. The Working Group aspires to reach consensus on these documents by the end of the week, so that they can be adopted at a special session on Friday, 20 January, to be considered at the 12th session of UNFF, to be held in May 2017.
In the morning, delegates discussed the Programme of Work for 2017-2020, including themes for upcoming UNFF sessions, intersessional work, and financing.
A revised text was circulated at lunch, and delegates met within regional groups for discussion. In the afternoon, delegates resumed discussion on the Strategic Plan, with a focus on Global Forest Goals.
Translation services ended at 6:00 pm, but delegates continued discussion in an informal capacity, tackling issues such as how to refer to indigenous peoples within the Global Forest Goals. Some delegates expressed concern that the document could become unwieldy if too many targets and thematic areas are included, and encouraged consolidation.
IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB Meeting Coverage, provided daily web updates from the UNFF Working Group and Special Session. In addition, IISD Reporting Services has published a summary and analysis report of this event, which is available in HTML and PDF.
Liubov Poliakova, Ukraine, requested including more information on work undertaken at the regional level.
Markku Aho, Farmers and Small Forest Landowners, said including regional meetings in the 4POW would give opportunity for sharing experiences and best practice.
Sibylle Vermont, Switzerland, requested a report of the Trust Fund be presented at each session.
Javad Momeni, Iran, called for inclusion of resource mobilization to advance SFM and implementation of the Strategic Plan.
Luca Perez, EU, called for aligning the priority thematic areas of discussion for each UNFF session with that year’s HLPF focus.
Elias Sekaleli, Lesotho, suggested including progress reports within the 4POW on mobilization of forest finance from different resources particularly from G3FN.
Adamou Ibro, Niger, suggested that the mission statement should consider “trees outside of forests.”
Delegates conferred during the lunch break.
Delegates queued eagerly to receive the revised draft text.