inFO news

FAO’s recent staff survey results emphasized the need to

strengthen communication channels in the Department.

In my view, a periodic bulletin covering personnel

comings and goings, recent news and upcoming events

may be a start to improving communication within

the Department. I would invite your feedback on this

approach and your contributions to future editions of

the bulletin. You can submit relevant information to

Forests-2011@fao.org.

As you know, the International Year of Forests is drawing

to a close after much intensive but fruitful work thanks

to your contributions. We in the Forestry Department

are considering how to continue the momentum we

have achieved in raising awareness of forests this year.

Our current projects include working to gain country

support for an International Day of Forests in 2012 and

recognition by decision-makers at Rio+20 in June 2012

of the importance of forests to sustainable development

and the green economy. But today, 20 December 2011,

we are holding FAO’s International Year of Forests closing

event at FAO headquarters in Rome. I would like to thank

you all for your commitment during the past 12 months

and wish you and your families a restful holiday and all

the best for 2012.

Eduardo Rojas-Briales, Assistant Director General, Forestry

Foreword

Follow-up on change management in FO

As a follow-up to the FAO staff survey, David Conte held a team-building

session moderated by an FAO facilitator to address the departmental results

of the survey. As an outcome of the meeting, two actions were selected to

be addressed by FO in the near term. They are: building trust relationships

among FO employees, and managing performance and enabling

employees (coaching and feedback; training and development plans).

David will continue to keep the department informed of progress in this

regard and hopes the new members of the Local Change Team will begin to

address the actions identified at the departmental meeting.

New/recent appointments

FOM recently welcomed Loreto Sanz Herrera (Spain); Nathalie Paratte

(Switzerland); Sugi Yoo (Italy); Marc Dumas-Johansen (Denmark); and Petteri

Vuorinen (Finland); FODP welcomed David Conte (USA) to their team. The

Director-General has appointed Eduardo Mansur (Brazil) as Director of FOM.

Staff retirements

The last quarter of this year has seen the retirement of three members of the

Forestry Department: José Antonio Prado retired at the end of September,

and Udeni Padmaperuma and Felice Padovani at the end of October. Each

of these colleagues made unique contributions to FO and forest issues. We

will miss our three colleagues and wish them all great success in their new

endeavours.

How we work – Staff news

José Antonio Prado

Eduardo Mansur

Photo competition – Forests through your lens

As we head into the final quarter of the International Year of Forests 2011,

we would like to invite you to submit a photo of the forests that you know

and love. www.fao.org/forestry/iyf2011/73628/en/

Castel Fusano tree-planting, Rome, October

Staff get hands dirty for the International

Year of Forests. In late October, more

than 50 FAO staff took part in a tree-

planting event near Rome, organized by

the Forestry Department together with

Corpo Forestale dello Stato to celebrate

the International Year of Forests. www.fao.org/forestry/iyf2011/events/en/

Art and Joy of Wood

Three hundred and fifty participants from across the globe and over three

thousand members of the public gathered in Bangalore to discuss the key

role of wood use as part of the path to sustainability. www.artjoywood.org/

Dee Dee Bridgewater, Carl Lewis and

Anggun support the International

Year of Forests!

Watch the latest video featuring FAO

Goodwill Ambassadors expressing their

support for the IYF: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_HF5klYV_Y

Wood is art An unusual sculpture exhibition in the Atrium is one of the activities marking the end of International Year of Forests. Some 28 large-scale works by the Finnish wood sculptors group Puunkuokkijat are on show. www.fao.org/forestry/iyf2011/events/en/

Forest news: recent and ongoing IYF events

iFOn application We have recently launched the first FAO departmental mobile application for iPhone and iPad. It contains general facts on forests, a quiz, videos and photos and a section that enables users to donate to recently selected forestry Telefood projects. It’s free and available through the Apple App store

New videos on FAO Forestry project work

Two new videos have been produced to showcase FAO Forestry’s work in

Mongolia and Rwanda. Mongolia: http://youtu.be/DGuXQgYv6tA

Wildlife in a Changing Climate (Rwanda): http://youtu.be/PAR7Mwv3848

ADG meets Head of UN-Habitat

The ADG met Joan Clos, Head of UN-Habitat, in Nairobi to discuss how

to intensify work on areas of mutual interest such as urban forestry and

sustainable building.

UN-REDD

A Strategic Direction Group has been established at the senior management

level to discuss UN-REDD. The Group has met three times since September,

strengthening the institutional commitment of the three agencies to the

UN-REDD programme.

International Mountain Day

A ceremony was held at

FAO headquarters on 12

December to commemorate

International Mountain Day

2011. This year, the focus

of the Day was “Mountain

forests – roots to our future”. Three new publications were launched at the

event. See the FAO (www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/116593/icode/) and

CPF (www.fao.org/forestry/30256-0b2d6df976ec6877802024dc5d5d76f06.pdf)

press releases for more information.

Forest news: recent and ongoing IYF events

Joan Clos

Olman Serrano

Collaborative partnership on forests news

Recent CPF press releases

CPF news items and press releases, on themes including fire, trade, food

security, bioenergy, urban forestry, mountains and Rio+20, can be found at

www.fao.org/forestry/cpf/41395/en/

CPF submission for Rio+20

In its recent submission to the UN Department of Economic and Social

Affairs for the Rio+20 preparatory process, the CPF note that forests are

an important component of future actions on sustainable development

and explain how the three pillars of sustainable development should be

viewed as a single approach in the transition to a green economy. View the

submission here: www.fao.org/forestry/cpf/en/

Global Forest Expert Panels (GFEPs) new Panel on “Biodiversity, Forest

Management, and REDD+”

A scoping meeting was held at FAO

in Rome, to look at how a proposed

GFEP could carry out a comprehensive

assessment of scientific knowledge

regarding the relationship between

biodiversity and REDD+, including

trade-offs between biodiversity, ecosystem services and carbon storage.

The assessment, coordinated by the International Union of Forest Research

Organizations (IUFRO) would provide policy-makers, investors and donors

with a stronger scientific basis for their decisions about REDD+ policies and

projects. IUFRO have now drafted the Terms of Reference for a GFEP Expert

Panel, which was submitted to the GFEP Steering Committee at a meeting

in Durban, South Africa, on 3 December, for discussion and approval.

Forest Day 5

Forest Day 5, which took

place on the fringes of the

UN Framework Convention

on Climate Change

(UNFCCC) Conference of

the Parties (COP) in Durban, South Africa, attracted over 1200 registered

participants and the high-level attendance of Ministers from South Africa

and the UK as well as Cristiana Figueres, Head of the UNFCCC.

www.forestsclimatechange.org/events/forest-day/forest-day-5.html

CPF Informal Meeting CPF held a meeting on 5 December 2011, on the periphery of the UNFCCC COP. The agenda covered CPF activities for Rio+20, the implementation of the requests by the Ninth Session of the UN Forum on Forests with regard to forest finance and agreed to establish a Wangari Maathai Award.

Regional news

Asia–Pacific Forestry Week in China

A very successful Asia–Pacific Forestry Commission and Forest Week was

held from 7–11 November in Beijing. The meeting was attended by the

Forest Minister of China, Mr. Jia Zhibang. To read all about it see:

www.fao.org/forestry/ap-forestry-week/en/

European Forestry Commission in Turkey

A joint session of the Timber Committee of the UN Economic Commission

for Europe (UNECE) and UNECE-FAO Forestry was held from 10–14 October

in Antalya, Turkey focusing on forests and green economy. To read more

about it see: www.fao.org/forestry/efc/en/

International Year of Forests Closing in Geneva

A distinguished group of experts from governments, international

organizations, NGOs and industry debated the topic “Forests 2030: The

future of forests in Europe and North America”. Participants attending the

event were then invited to join a closing ceremony for the International

Year of Forests organized by the Republic of Poland and the United States

of America in cooperation with the UNECE-FAO Forestry and UNECE Timber

Section. For more information, please see the UNECE website at:

www.unece.org/iyf-closing.html

Global Environment Facility projects

Three new Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects in Mongolia,

Cameroon and Trinidad and Tobago have been recently approved.

RELAFOR

The third workshop on Forest Education in Latin America was held in Lima

during the Fifth Latin American Forestry Congress in October 2011. The

objective of the workshop was to elaborate documents to improve teaching

on forests and to project the image of forestry better in the Latin American

region. For more on the workshop see:

www.cnf.org.pe/vconflat/evento_RELAFOR.pdf

REDPARQUES

New work on coastal marine protected areas will soon be introduced as

part of the technical mechanism REDPARQUES, which consists of public and

private institutions and specialists from member countries of the region

working in the field of protected areas, flora and fauna. A Latin American

meeting of Directors of national parks was held in Mexico from 19-24

September and another was held on marine zones from 21-26 September in

São Paulo, Brazil. For more information, watch this space: www.rlc.fao.org/

es/areas-tecnicas/bosques/redparques/

Regional Functional Technical Networks

As part of a broader FAO corporate initiative, FAO Forestry is the first

Department to establish a Functional Technical Network. The Network

will formalize existing cooperative arrangements between the Forestry

Department and Decentralized Offices.

Publications

Remote sensing survey: The remote sensing survey carried out as part of

the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 presents new estimates of the

area in forest land-use and change rates (deforestation and afforestation)

at global, continental and ecological zone scales for the time period 1990,

2000 and to 2005. Recent findings were presented at a side event held

during the UNFCCC COP-17 in Durban, South Africa. The study will also

result in an updated forest-cover map:

www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/95180/icode/

Wildlife in a changing climate: FAO Forestry Paper No. 167 looks at the

effects of a changing climate on wildlife. It was launched at the Conference

in Durban. The publication examines the likely consequences of climate

change for wildlife, including altered ecosystems and species composition

and increased incidence of human–wildlife conflict, wildland fires and

spread of invasive species and infectious diseases. See a video here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAR7Mwv3848&feature=youtu.be

Amazon NWFP: Fruit trees and useful plants in Amazonian life will be

launched at the closing event of the International Year of Forests in Rome on

20 December. This publication synthesizes the findings of over 70 Brazilian

and international researchers regarding wide-ranging uses, fascinating

ecology and rapidly disappearing lore of 35 native forest species.

Unasylva: A new issue of the journal focuses on measuring forest

degradation. Articles are based on works originally commissioned for a

Global Forest Resources Assessment special study on forest degradation.

See: www.fao.org/publications/unasylva for more information.

Partners

International Forest Students Association (IFSA)

An Agreement of Cooperation has recently been signed between the FAO

Forestry and IFSA. The purpose of the Agreement is to enable members of

IFSA easier access to information on FAO’s work and to allow them to attend

relevant FAO events.

Jane Goodall event

Eduardo Rojas-Briales made a presentation on FAO’s work in forestry to

reverse deforestation at an event with the Jane Goodall Institute Italia

held at the British Embassy in Rome. The Jane Goodall Institute (www.

janegoodall.org) is a global nonprofit organization. The vision of the

Jane Goodall Institute aligns closely with the work here of the Forestry

Department, and it is important that we continue to work closely together

with institutions to enhance our common goals, in order to strengthen the

voice for sustainable forest management.

Upcoming events

AFWC

The 18th Session of the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission will be

held in Cotonou, Benin, from 16–20 January 2012. For more information, see

www.fao.org/forestry/afwc/en/

NEFC

The 20th Near East Forestry and Range Commission will be held in Turkey

from 29 January until 2 February 2012. For more information, see

www.fao.org/forestry/31112/en/

COFLAC

The agenda for the 27th Latin American and Caribbean Forestry

Commission has just been set. The meeting will be convened in Asunción,

Paraguay from 5–9 March 2012. See the agenda here:

www.rlc.fao.org/en/agenda/27-session-of-the-lacfc/