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News

Jul 28, 2014
Romanian virgin beech forests nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage list

The Romanian government, Greenpeace and WWF have started the nomination process for the virgin beech forests of Romania to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. The designation process and all the procedures related to it will take approximately two years.

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Jul 25, 2014
Importance of native tree species in restoration projects stressed in new FAO report

The benefits of using native species in large scale rehabilitation and restoration projects are highlighted in a new publication from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

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News

Jun 26, 2014

Relevance of green economy and social aspects of SFM highlighted in FOREST EUROPE's side event at COFO

In a side event organised on the occasion of the 22nd Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) and the World Forest Week, FOREST EUROPE underlined the opportunities for the forest sector in moving to a green economy, and stressed the need to put greater emphasis on the social dimension of sustainable forest management.

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The event, held on 25 June at the FAO premises in Rome, was also a good opportunity to share the outcomes of the FOREST EUROPE Workshop on Green Economy and Social Aspects of SFM, held in Santander (Spain), on 29-30 April 2014.

More than 50 participants attended the meeting in Rome, enriching the discussions on two of the headline topics during this session of COFO.

During the side event, there was general consensus among the participants on the need to move these subjects up the political agenda and to establish a good regulatory framework to enhance the sustainable growth and creation of decent green jobs in the forest sector, and to ensure that social issues are appropriately tackled. In this regard, stress was made on the idea that green economy cannot be understood separately from the social dimension of sustainable forest management (SFM): green jobs have to be first of all decent jobs. Thus, working on the social dimension of SFM will be indispensable for the transition of the sector to a green economy.

The need to improve information on these subjects was also highlighted, as well as the importance of communicating them to a wide audience and improving education about them.

Green economy and social aspects related to the forest sector have been important features in many of the COFO 22's agenda points and side events, which have focused on different facets related to the socioeconomic dimension of forests. These have included innovation in the forest sector; promotion of sustainable production and consumption of forest products; income and employment; payment for forest ecosystem services and forest financing; forests and gender equality; or equitable benefit sharing.

Mr. Arnaud Brizay (from the UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section), and Ms. Anna Sténs (from Umeå University, Sweden) were the speakers in the session that was chaired by Ms. María Tourné, Head of the FOREST EUROPE Liaison Unit Madrid.

More information on this side event can be found at this link: http://www.foresteurope.org/events/forest-europe-side-event-22nd-session-fao-committee-forestry