COP 16 side event: Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (FERI): Taking forward a decade of ecosystem recovery

Juliette Biao, Director, UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) Secretariat, noted complementarities between the UNFF and CBD, and emphasized the need to leverage the synergies of shared goals and targets of international frameworks. She said effective implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) "is not possible without great action to conserve, restore, and sustainably manage our forests." She called attention to the Joint Initiative between the UNFF and CBD on harnessing synergies between the global forest and biodiversity agendas, and to a High-Level event at the upcoming COP to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will focus on initiatives related to forest conservation. She also called attention to the UN Forest Pavilion, a collaborative platform during international conferences to highlight the role of forests in addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable development.

Gisele Didier, Humboldt Institute, Colombia, shared her country's experience with the WePlan Forests tool, which supports planning and evaluating forest restoration options. She described a project focused on degraded forest landscapes designed to evaluate priorities for forest restoration by looking at opportunity costs associated with different trade-offs. She noted challenges associated with forest restoration decision making, including timing considerations, scale, and the importance of monitoring and reporting, including through citizen science.