–With growing concern that governments will fail to reach consensus on the role of forests in the next global climate pact, an alliance of international forestry and environmental organizations today called on negotiators to include forests in mechanisms to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

– The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) today released a comprehensive analysis clarifying major challenges and offering an assortment of options that could help negotiators reach a global agreement on reducing carbon emissions tied to forest destruction and degradation.

– Unless immediate action is taken, climate change could have a devastating effect on the world’s forests and the nearly 1 billion people who depend on them for their livelihoods, warned a leading group of forest scientists in a report to be released next week. The researchers from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) called for the implementation of adaptation measures to reduce the vulnerability of forests and forest-dependent communities that will experience an unprecedented combination of climate change-associated disturbances like flooding, drought, wildfire, and other environmental challenges in the next 100 years.

– A new report from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB) and partners warns that an upsurge in hunting bushmeat—including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians — in tropical forests is unsustainable and that it poses serious threats to food security for poor inhabitants of forests in Africa, who rely largely on bushmeat for protein.

“Over the last two years, the global public has become increasingly aware of the threat ofclimate change in general, and the role of deforestation in exacerbating that threat inparticular. Nevertheless, the linkages between forests and climate change – and themagnitude of the challenges to addressing them – remain underappreciated.”
Frances Seymour, has been at the forefront of international discussions around on forestsand climate change, including negotiations with the Conference of the Parties to theFramework Convention on Climate Change, Asia Forestry Week and the upcoming ForestDay 2 – UNFCCC COP 14 Parallel Event.

– Delegates from all over the world will meet today to discuss issues surrounding timber trade, forest law compliance and governance. The dialogue will be held as part of Asia Pacific Forestry Week, currently being staged in Hanoi.

– Experts from forestry institutions say that to ensure equity in the implementation of a new plan to reduce deforestation, it is essential to clarify land rights in and around forests.