Principal functions of UN Forum on Forests

ISTANBUL

Jan McAlpine heads of the UNFF.

The U.N. Forum on Forests (UNFF) operates along certain principal functions. The organization summarizes these functions as follows.

• Facilitate the implementation of forest-related agreements and foster a common understanding on sustainable forest management;
• Ensure continued policy development and dialogue among governments, international organizations, including major groups as identified in Agenda 21, as well as address forest issues and emerging areas of concern in a holistic, comprehensive and integrated manner;
• Enhance cooperation as well as policy and program coordination on forest-related issues;
• Foster international cooperation;
• Monitor, assess and report on the progress of aforementioned functions and objectives;
• Strengthen political commitment to the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests;
• Enhance the contribution of forests to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and the implementation of the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, bearing in mind the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development;
• Encourage and assist countries, including those with low forest cover, to develop and implement forest conservation and rehabilitation strategies, increase the area of forests under sustainable management and reduce forest degradation and the loss of forest cover in order to maintain and improve their forest resources with a view to enhancing the benefits of forests to meet present and future needs, in particular the needs of indigenous peoples and local communities whose livelihoods depend on forests;
• Strengthen interaction between the United Nations Forum on Forests and relevant regional and sub-regional forest-related mechanisms, institutions and instruments, organizations and processes, with the participation of major groups, as identified in Agenda 21, and relevant stakeholders to facilitate enhanced cooperation and effective implementation of sustainable forest management, as well as to contribute to the work of the forum.