The second full day of negotiations on draft texts of the High-level declaration and the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) omnibus resolution did not reach consensus on many issues by the stated deadline of 5:00 pm Wednesday, despite lengthy efforts by the co-facilitators to propose “streamlined” compromise text. They assigned key contentious issues to contact groups to continue outside normal working hours on Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning in the hopes of forging compromises in time for the declaration to be adopted on Thursday afternoon and the omnibus resolution on Friday.
Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.
The declaration is intended to provide a high-level political commitment on the way forward on forests, while the resolution would set the mandate for specific future actions by the UNFF and its stakeholders for implementing the UN Strategic Plan for Forests (UNSPF), agree on the Mid-Term Review on the effectiveness of the International Arrangement on Forests, and set the UNFF’s Quadrennial Programme of Work for 2025-2027.
In the morning negotiations on the draft declaration, delegates appeared to find common ground on including the terms “Indigenous Peoples,” “forest communities,” and “local communities,” and referencing a link between traditional knowledge and innovations and better forest conservation and management. Another breakthrough was to agree on the second operational paragraph on implementation of the UN Forest Instrument, the UNSPF, and the role of forests in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
No breakthrough was achieved on deforestation drivers, unilateral coercive measures, means of implementation, references to other environmental agreements or fora, or referencing forests as a solution to climate change.
Small groups tried unsuccessfully during lunch to forge compromises on deforestation drivers and means of implementation, while the co-facilitators worked to streamline the rest of the text. A contact group met Wednesday evening to continue work on the basis of a new text containing the co-facilitators’ proposals.
In the negotiations on the omnibus resolution, hours of talks and an afternoon effort by the co-facilitators to produce acceptable compromise wordings did not result in consensus on gender, Secretariat resources, synergies, bioeconomy, reversing deforestation, preventing forest degradation, or references to other agreements and fora. However, a proposal to add wording on “streamlining reporting and data sharing” received little opposition. It was decided to convene a contact group on Thursday morning before the High-level Segment in the hopes of forging compromises to pave the way for adoption of a finalized omnibus resolution on Friday.
Informal Working Groups
Delegates from the Republic of Korea scrutinizing the document during the contact group
Mustafa Rashid Zangna, Iraq
Jawaher Mohammad Al Ammar, Saudi Arabia
Delegates in consultations prior to the start of the informal working groups
Aysha Ghadiali, US
Sibylle Vermont, Switzerland
View of one of the informal consultation rooms
Afteroon Plenary
View of the room during the afternoon plenary
Adriano Bonotto, Brazil
Nikita Andrianov, Russian Federation
Hossein Moeini-Meybodi, UNFF Secretariat, and Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, Director, UNFF Secretariat
Co-facilitator of Informal Working Group 1 Leticia Zamora Zumbado (Costa Rica)
Around the Venue
The delegates met throughout the day in informal working groups closed to observers.
Side Event: Forests for Sustainable Land Restoration: UNCCD COP16
This side event was co-hosted by the Government of Saudi Arabia and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Panelists discussed the importance of restoring degraded land and investing in forestry initiatives, which also contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation and the conservation of biological diversity. Panelists from Saudi Arabia, the host of UNCCD COP 16 in December 2024, discussed their experiences supporting sustainable land restoration efforts nationally, regionally and internationally through the Saudi Green Initiative, the Middle East Green Initiative and the G20 Global Land Initiative.
Khaled bin Abdullah Al-Abdul Qadir, National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVD) Saudi Arabia, and Abdulaziz bin Mohamed Al-Wasil, Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia to the UN
Abdulaziz bin Mohamed Al-Wasil, Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia to the UN, and Nandhini Krishna, Deputy Chief of Office, UN Convention to Combat Desertification/ Convention on Biological Diversity Liaison Office
Malgorzata Buszko-Briggs, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
