 My takeaway from COFA-26 is that the hybrid modality offers a significant opportunity for diverse participation while allowing for the opportunity to network, dialogue, and create partnerships. The State of the World's Forest 2022 is a seminal body of work that provides a lot of useful information on how or collective efforts towards sustainability are moving the needle with respect to the achievement of the SDGs and action to combat climate change. A brief update of the activities of the LACFC include a virtual session which was hosted by Jamaica held from the 6th to the 10th of September, 2021. I am happy to report that attendance was quite good with participants from 32 countries and observers from 32 international, regional, and national organizations. The LACFC addressed several issues common to all regional forestry conferences and in line with recommendations of the FAO's regional office, the next session of the LACFC will be held in the first semester of 2023 hosted virtually by Ecuador. This follows on a virtual conference hosted by Ecuador in March of 2022 for the Latin America and Caribbean and Pacific which was also attended by the LACFC chair who presented the main results of the last session. Unfortunately, due to a lack of funding and human resources, the intersessional activities of the LACFC have not yet taken place and were advised that these remain difficult to organize. It should, however, be noted that a cross-sectoral approach is under consideration with the Regional Commission and Animal Husbandry and a common paper on silver pastoral systems as a form of climate smart animal husbandry is being considered. The LACFC also made several recommendations for the consideration of COVO covering a wide range of topics including but not limited to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, forest refinancing to support the re-envigoration of the forest sector, mechanisms to facilitate the role of forests in food security and sustainable production chains, the promotion of the bioeconomy through forestry products as a tool for sustainable forest management and climate change mitigation, the promotion of measures to strengthen the capacity of countries in integrated farm management, measurements to strengthen the capacity of local communities and forestry sector organizations in self-governance. The LACFC also thanked the FAO for their ongoing support and encouraged COFO to continue to support countries in integrating the forestry sector in their NDCs, promote the development of urban forestry, discuss mechanisms to facilitate access to forestry education in countries with limited access such as SIDS and provide opportunities to share successful experiences in topics such as forest restoration, reduction of deforestation and land degradation, conservation and sustainable use of forests, forest traceability systems, incentives and effective zoning. Thank you very much.