 My name is Martin Weih, and I'm a professor of plant ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden. And I was honored to participate at COFO26 as the chair of the International Commission on Poplas and other fast-growing trees, sustaining people and the environment, the IPC. In the discussions during COFO26, it became apparent that planted forests and especially planted forests of fast-growing trees do not currently play an important role in the ongoing dialogue within the forestry community. However, as was highlighted in this special event during COFO26, these planted forests do have a prominent role to play as a nature-based solution in the transition towards carbon neutral economies, sustainable landscapes and better livelihoods. And here the IPC offers fantastic possibilities to help implementing plantations of fast-growing trees into the FAO work and supporting the global sustainability goals, because the IPC is a science policy implementation platform and already a proven model for international technical cooperation in forestry. Fast-growing trees are considered growing roughly more than 10 cubic meters per hectare per year. And the main difference to conventional forest trees is that these so-called fast-growing trees achieve very high annual increments already in a young growth state, which is also the reason for the high land use efficiency that can be achieved with these trees. Thus, despite covering only 3% of the global forest area, plantations of fast-growing trees produce about one-third of the world's total roundwood. Traditionally, the IPC focused on poplars and willows. But in 2019, the IPC broadened its scope and received a new mandate to include also other fast-growing trees that sustain people and the environment. This new IPC mandate envisages an expansion to new regions and countries, enlarging the geographic, biological and technical scope of the IPC by including a wider range of fast-growing trees or species with similar attributes in terms of industrial and energy uses or environmental applications compared to poplars and willows. Thus, the new IPC mandate will support the sustainable provision of wood and ecosystem services. First, by transferring the experience and the lessons learned on poplars and willows to other fast-growing species in forestry and agroforestry, and second, by strengthening the contribution of plantations with fast-growing trees to food security, sustainable livelihoods and land use in rural areas. Key ingredients of the new mandate are thus new species, new geographic trees and a strong alignment with strategies of the 2030 agenda and the global forest goals. The UN decayed on family farming and the UN decayed on ecosystem restoration. Especially with this new mandate in mind, we warmly welcome countries that currently are not members of the IPC to become new members and thereby participate in the technical cooperation and take part of the experiences and the lessons learned during the long history of the IPC as a science policy implementation platform. Please consult the IPC webpage for more information about the IPC and to learn how to become a new member of the IPC. Thank you for your attention.