Ninth Meeting of the Asia Forest Partnership and The Asia Forest Partnership Dialogue: “Forest Governance Challenges Beyond Copenhagen: An Asia-Pacific Perspective”

Ninth Meeting of the Asia Forest partnership and The Asia Forest Partnership Dialogue: “Forest Governance Challenges Beyond Copenhagen: An Asia-Pacific Perspective” to be held on 4-6 August 2010 (4 August is for Steering Committee meeting and partners’ forum), at Hotel Ayodya, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.

AFP Dialogue 2010
A series of global events, processes and decisions underscore the attention to forests and forest governance. As disappointing as the outcomes from the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in 2009 ultimately were, an accord was negotiated and subsequently most UNFCCC Parties have “associated” themselves with it. The importance of REDD+ to climate change mitigation is acknowledged in Article 6 of the Accord: “We recognize the crucial role of reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation and the need to enhance removals of greenhouse gas emission by forests and agree on the need to provide positive incentives to such actions through the immediate establishment of a mechanism including REDD-plus, to enable the mobilization of financial resources from developed countries.”

Good forest governance has the potential to promote sustainable forest management (SFM), reduce illegal logging and attract financial flows to tropical forest-rich countries through REDD+. However, opportunities and trade-offs in the areas of forest governance, SFM, law enforcement and REDD+ continue to be addressed separately. Potential synergies for achieving shared objectives are rarely identified.

Much is also happening in the Asia-Pacific region from which lessons can be extracted and there is considerable potential to identify and pursue synergies. Governments, with support from international organizations, NGOs, research institutes and others, are developing policies and creating frameworks to implement REDD+, and are undertaking REDD+ demonstration activities. Efforts to improve forest governance from local to national levels are also underway. Governance is crucial to REDD+ to ensure long-term, real emissions reductions and equitable outcomes, while many hope that REDD+ will provide new opportunities to strengthen forest governance.

AFP, in collaboration with the Governments of Japan and Indonesia, and CIFOR supported by the EU’s European Forest Institute (EFI) Forest Law Enforcement Governance & Trade Asia Regional Support Programme (FLEGT Asia), and The Nature Conservancy’s Responsible Asia Forest and Trade (RAFT) Programme, will organise a regional dialogue on ‘Forest governance challenges beyond Copenhagen: An Asia Pacific perspective’. Other potential contributors will include representatives of international organizations and other interested AFP members.

Objectives:
The Dialogue aims to bring together key decision makers in government and leaders of intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, academia and the private sector to provide a broad cross-section of perspectives on the Copenhagen Accord and other COP15 outcomes, their implications for REDD+, and the nexus between REDD+ and forest governance in the Asia and Pacific region. The objectives of the Dialogue are to provide an opportunity for:
- A frank exchange of information, views and perspectives on forest governance challenges and the links between forest governance and REDD+;
- Updates of REDD+ and forest governance policies, programs and projects in the Asia Pacific region, including sharing of lessons; Identifying challenges and synergies; Partners (and non-Partners) to discuss collaboration on REDD+ and governance initiatives.

Information about AFP and the event could be accessed at:
http://www.asiaforests.org/