Plenary session at FAO during the 19^th session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Committee on Forestry (COFO) held jointly with the first edition of the World Forest Week (photo: B.Vinceti/ Bioversity International).

Between March 16^th and 20^th, 2009, over 550 participants from member states gathered at FAO in occasion of the 19th session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Committee on Forestry (COFO), held jointly with the first edition of the World Forest Week. The participants included representatives of countries, heads of forestry departments, UN agencies, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, all brought together to identify emerging policy and technical issues, seek solutions and advise FAO and others on appropriate action. The Committee on Forestry (COFO) is the most important of the FAO Forestry Statutory Bodies. The Committee is convened every two years, at FAO headquarters in Rome.

On Monday, March 16^th 2009, Jan Heino, the Head of the Forestry Department at FAO, welcomed the participants and highlighted the need for cooperation among forest-related organizations. He reminded the need to address climate change and the challenges posed by the global economic crisis, and emphasized the need for institutional adaptation.

Among the issues discussed in plenary was the proposal put forward by the FAO's Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture's (CGRFA) to prepare a State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources report to be complete by 2013. In the following discussion, participants generally supported developing the implementation of such an effort. In particular, the Czech Republic, for the EU, stressed broad participation in formulating the report. The US recommended focusing on the most threatened species and genetic diversity, and actions to preserve them. The US representative noted that the assessment has to be grounded on relies on countries cooperation and should be undertaken in collaboration with relevant regional and global programmes.

For the first time, in conjunction with the COFO session, approximately twenty special events were held throughout the week as part of "World Forest Week." These events were intended to create a more informal dialogue, with delegates speaking in their personal capacity and not as state representatives, and open to participation.

On March 17^th, 2009, a special event on the preparation of a report on the State of the World's FGR was organized. Reiner Finkeldey, from the Göttingen University, was among the invited speakers and had a chance, through his presentation, to emphasize the importance of and the threats to forest genetic diversity, our increasing but limited knowledge of genetic resources, and the critical need for international collaboration on the issue.

Among the invited speakers at the side event on forest genetic resources was Reiner Finkeldey, member of the Executive Committee of EVOLTREE and activity leader. Reiner highlighted the importance of forest genetic resources in relation to adaptation of forests to climate change (photo: B.Vinceti/ Bioversity International).

To conclude his presentation, the collaborative scientific efforts undertaken in the context of some relevant ongoing initiatives related to forest genetic resources was highlighted. The initiatives explicitly mentioned were EUFORGEN and EVOLTREE. The full presentation given by Reiner Finkeldey (activity leader within EVOLTREE) can be downloaded here: PDF

Bioversity International's booth at the World Forest Week, with the EVOLTREE poster on display and the EVOLTREE external newsletter available for distribution (photo: B.Vinceti/ Bioversity International).

In occasion of the COFO and World Forest Week, Bioversity International set up a booth in the main atrium at FAO to distribute publications and display posters of various ongoing projects (EUFORGEN, EUFGIS and EVOLTREE). Further information on COFO and the World Forest Week can be found within the site maintained by IISD.