COFO 19 Concludes Successfully

Above: COFO Chair Abigail Kimbell, US and fellow panelist Russ Taylor, International Markets Group, talked with participants before the morning event on economic turbulence.

On Friday, delegates gathered for the final day of the 19th session of the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) and World Forest Week at FAO headquarters in Rome.

The morning began with a World Forest Week special event on the impacts of economic turbulence on the forest sector. After this event, the COFO Secretary announced a recess to provide additional time for preparation of the report of the meeting.

Plenary convened at in the afternoon, chaired by COFO Vice-Chair Kubilay Ozyalcin of Turkey, and delegates discussed the draft report. On the summary of discussions on shaping an action programme for FAO in forestry, the Czech Republic, speaking on behalf of the EU, proposed to move text referring to fact that the process of priority-setting in FAO is work in progress into a paragraph on the FAO Strategy for Forests and Forestry. Many countries raised objections, with Ecuador pointing out that the Strategy for Forests and Forestry cannot be revised by the committee working on FAO reforms. Australia queried whether the EU's disagreement with the text referred to recommending the use of technical experts in the FAO's priority-setting process, which was not mentioned in either paragraph. The Czech Republic, for the EU, responded that he had reserved his overall position within the drafting group's discussions but ultimately withdrew the proposal so as not to block consensus on the report, and this was well received by the plenary.

Delegates adopted the report, and after brief closing statements Chair Ozyalcin declared the 19th session of COFO closed at 4:06pm.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin summary and analysis of the 19th Session of the Committee on Forestry will be available from this site on Monday, 23 March 2009.