 Okay. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and National Geographic Society Roundtable, Our Forests Under Threat, Protecting Forests for Sustainable Livelyhoods. My name is Vanessa Cireo. I'm the executive producer at National Geographic Society, where our mission is to use the power of science exploration education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. And I'll be moderating today's discussion. J.O. and NGS are long-standing partners. In 2014, we teamed up to raise awareness of food and agriculture issues in the National Geographic Magazine Series, The Future of Food. This year, our organizations formed a new collaboration that uses documentary film screenings to raise awareness of food and agriculture issues. Today's event is part of that collaboration, and we'll be screening a wonderful film, A Journey Without a Map, New Generation Plantations in Uganda by James Thompson. After the screening, we're fortunate to have several experts in sustainable forestry joining us. Kathy Abuso is the president and CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, and she'll give us a keynote presentation. This will be followed by remarks by Mehta Wilkie, director of the Forestry Policy and Resources Division at FAO, Alex Chabuwampi, Senior Corporate Social Responsibility Program Manager at the New Forest Company in Uganda, Owen Samata and Agnes Nassanda of Forest High School in Uganda, and Huma Khan, Global Communications Lead for Forests at World Wildlife Fund International. Some quick housekeeping notes about the webinar will be using the Zoom's chat function to share panelists' bios as they speak, and participants can also use this to post links or comments to share with each other. There's also a question and answer box at the bottom of the Zoom screen. Please use this to submit questions for the panelists, and we will compile those questions and ask them following all the panelists' remarks. And finally, this webinar is being recorded, so we will be able to share the entire recording with you at the conclusion of our event. Now it's my pleasure to introduce Vimlendra Sharan, director of the FAO Liaison for North America, who will give opening remarks and then introduce the film. Vimlendra, you're muted. I am so sorry. Is that okay now? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Vanessa. And on behalf of FAO North America Office and Agio, it's my pleasure to welcome all of you joining today's webinar from various parts of the world to discuss the importance of protecting forests for sustainable livelihoods. I'm extremely grateful to Kathy Abso, president and CEO of Sustainable Forestry Initiative for agreeing to deliver the keynote address and lead the discussion today and to all other esteemed panelists who have found time to join us. We are most excited to have with us two very young panelists, cool students, Owen and Agnes from the Forest High School in Kampala, who will share with us their perspective on how sustainable plantation program in the city has impacted their lives. As Vanessa mentioned, FAO North America Office and Agio have over the last year collaborated and bringing together events of this sort. Of course, we used to meet in person in the excellent screening facilities with Agio, but the pandemic has forced us to adapt and I'm glad that we have done so. Where earlier we could have a maximum of 6280 people joining us. Today we have more than 500 registrants from all over the world, and that clearly also indicates the level of interest in this topic. Over the centuries, the world has experienced vast forest loss, and that's known to all with the spread of agriculture and population growth. We also understand that we need to check this, but to check deforestation and reverse these trends requires a change in politics, laws, institutions and incentives in and beyond the forestry sector. We have to adopt a landscape approach which embraces activities such as restoring degraded forest land, hosting agricultural productivity, realigning farm and forest incentives to protect forests from being converted into farmland, and involving local communities more directly in the design and oversight of forest management. It is important that we help governments improve economic policy and the management and governance of forest sector. At FAO, the starting point is to ask how can nations reduce forest degradation and check corrupt practices in the sector so that forest provides more sustainable development and livelihood opportunities. The challenge for any policymaker around the globe is to find effective ways in which to measure the value of forest generated services and effectively feed it into the decisions that impact more than one sector and into macroeconomic and development policies. I'm sure Matej Wilkie, director of forest policy and resource division at FAO will speak a greater detail to these issues during her presentation. But a good resource also would be to refer to FAO's flagship report, the State of the World's Forest 2020, for more understanding. To kick off these discussions today, we will start the webinar with screening of the film to show how sustainable plantations have helped save Uganda's decimated forests, one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. Uganda has been seeing its population double in 12 years. With 95% of the population dependent on toxic charcoal and wood fluell for cooking, the natural forests have shrunk to only 10% of the original cover. Filmmakers James Thompson and Thomas Hogman, profiled Ugandans who are forging a new path with their innovative approach to harness the strength of sustainable forestry to better their livelihoods. I'm sure all of us are going to immensely enjoy watching this film, which would lead on to our discussions today. I must also mention that this film is a part of the short film showcase on our geo platform, which spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the world, and selected by National Geographic Editors. The editors look for the work that affirms now Geo's belief in the power of science exploration and storytelling to change the world. Friends, it is time for us to come together and change the world. So let's start with the first small step of listening to experts and how this is best done. I'll stop here and hand it back over to Vanessa to take the proceedings forward. Thank you. Thank you. I think we can queue up the film now. People have cut down trees because they need fuel. People have cut down trees because they need construct homes. It is important that people do have access to forest and timber resources, but this needs to be on a sustainable basis. As we go towards the development of our country, we need power. We need power to run processing facilities. We need power for different activities, most industries. We need power for home consumption. We need power in restaurants. Most of the things we are buying recently, they need charging. You need fridges. You need funds. Everything is running on power. So power is basically needed in our day to day lives. We have the land and we have the climate where trees can grow. Therefore growing our own resources, import substitution is just a clear case. Importing means we are spending precious dollars to bring in a resource that we can readily produce at home. Action is needed now. Action was needed actually yesterday in terms of getting people to invest in plantations, getting people to plant a tree, plant two trees, put up a small wood lot and getting the national consciousness raised on the importance of maintaining the watersheds, of maintaining the biodiversity of our remaining few natural forests. The whole process begins with the mother garden. I have got a few big mother gardens of about 20,000 ramets and that's where we pick our cuttings. There is about 500,000 seedlings annually. They are using a rooting hormone to stimulate the rooting. After three months, they will be ready enough for planting out into the field. Plantations were very, very important to my upbringing, my family, my brothers and sisters. It was the source of our school fees. And so if you planted a belt of plantations around natural forests, you are in one way protecting the natural forest and directly contributing to tourism and to the wildlife they are in. And even up to now, my parents have sold firewood, small bit by bit, but they earn every day. We have sold timber and remember we don't have a big piece of land. Our land is about five acres and that's where we grow food, that's where we stay, that's where we have everything. In my village, a tree, let's say eucalyptus of 8 to 13 years, ranges between 80,000 and 120,000 per tree. And if you can imagine, most of the school fees for average schools is about 300,000 to 600,000. So that means every time five trees can pay fees for your child. These forests are going to release the oxygen which is utilized by the human being for respiration. This is our oxygen gas. Very good. Can we clap hands? I've been here for seven years as a school leader. We have managed to produce over 1,000 professionals. Sandra, you run very fast and tell the warden to come and open for us the generator room. Being a rural-based school and fat-rich school, we don't have power here. And indeed power has been one of the highest number one challenge of the school. So this is the generator that we are using now. It is a petrol-powered generator. If you want to buy a new house, you can use that to build a new house. It is not a big deal. It is a good place to build a new house with a lot of property. If you want to build a new house and you want to build a new forest, you can use that to build a new apartment. The house is in a very good condition. We are going to build a new apartment. But if you want to build a new house, you can do that. We shall fight to protect our children. Planting trees is not a choice that can be debated. The country needs its forests. So it is clear that forests are a necessity for the country. It is not a luxury that we can easily import once things go wrong. I believe in it, new forests are not just a job. I'm a Ugandan too. And not all of us have the luxury of getting on a plane and relocating somewhere else. So we've got to make things work here. We have to make this thing work here. Beautiful film, James. We're lucky today to have the director of the film, James Thompson, with us for a conversation. James, I just love how your film illustrates the many ways that trees and forestry are integrated with the community. You did a really great job talking to people on the ground there in Uganda. It also illustrates the demands, how the demands for development compete sometimes with forest preservation. There are needs for income, for things like school tuition and electricity that people derive from forests, but then also the need to preserve the forest for both environmental and human health as well as tourism. So I'm curious when you were speaking to community members there, how did they think they were doing at achieving this balance? And did they think this was possible going forward? Yeah, first of all, thank you to FAO for selecting the film and sharing it with everyone today. We shot the film actually two years ago, last June. I think already things are slowly improving. I can't talk on behalf of Ugandan communities. I think that's why we made the film. It's also why we've worked hard to make sure that Alex, who was featured in the film and also some of the pupils at the high school, were able to join us in this session. So I'm really grateful for that. I would say that I think there is a belief that it can work and there's a tremendous amount of optimism in Uganda that we weren't expecting. And I think that that goes a lot of energy to make the film and to create a positive picture of what's happening there. The mother garden that we see in the film is a really nice example of achieving that balance where sustainable forestry is actually embedded into communities. You have millions of tree saplings nurtured there every year, sold to companies like the New Forest Company and others for healthy profit. And the plantation manager there is also a pastor of a local church, which stands proudly on the grounds of his nursery. And of course, he's handing out seeds to his congregation to plant their own wood lots. It's an incredible place. So I think that's a nice example of it working. I think a lot of communities we visited had abundant supplies of fresh local food, but they lacked the energy infrastructure needed to improve education and also health facilities. So then that becomes the priority, perhaps not so much the environment. Of course, they're interlinked. I think when electricity does arrive in places like Chicanoa, lives will change undoubtedly. But will people question where that energy comes from? Will wetlands be cleared for large hydroelectric dams? I don't know if communities are really a part of that national conversation yet. And I think ideas of sustainability are still sort of the reserve of the elite. And I'm confident that our first high peoples will prove me wrong. Yes, good point. I mean, I think that's why it's so important as you did in your film to be highlighting the voices of the people who actually live in the forestry community. So you did an excellent job doing that. And an interesting thing about you personally is that in addition to being a filmmaker, you also have a degree in environmental sustainability. I'm curious how you came to choose to be a filmmaker and to use film as a tool for inspiring people to support sustainability efforts like forest conservation. Sure. It's just kind of a natural thing to fall into really. It's a great way to collaborate with different people, bring communities, companies, governments together, work out ideas, amplify voices that aren't heard as much in media. So, you know, I had a degree in photography already and it was just a natural combination. But so, yeah, that's how it came about. But, you know, I think going to a place like Uganda, we're not there to sort of pick apart what's going wrong there. We're also learning ourselves as filmmakers and as citizens of Scotland. I think, you know, there are comparisons. The forest cover in Scotland is 12%. And very, very low indeed. So I think, you know, we can learn something about the way Uganda has managed to protect its wildlife, its forests, not just for biodiversity, but also tourism. And, yeah, I think that we learn a lot there. I think that's why I make films is to understand if you're learning in the process, then other people will learn with you. That's right. I personally believe they're an excellent way of elevating voices and starting conversations like the one we're having today. So thanks so much for allowing us to showcase your work and being here to speak with us today. Thank you, James. Yes. And our next speaker, it's my pleasure to introduce as our keynote speaker, Kathy Abuso, president and CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Thank you so much, Nessa, for the opportunity to speak here today on the FAO Nat Geo event. That was an inspiring film. And I think one of the great opportunities is used local stories to help build emotional context of how a world can value and benefit from sustainably managed forest, which is our mission, our vision. And we do that through collaboration. And so there's a big difference, though, I want to point out between deforestation and sustainable forest management. They're on opposite ends of the scale. Deforestation is when you have forest loss. It's not a forest again. And it's been converted to another use. And that is void of a lot of values that are provided with sustainable forest management, which was about the story we just heard and how sustainably managed forest can help the planet. And they can do that one local community at a time. And part of the challenge is to be able to benefit from the wide variety of values that come from sustainably managed forest, one local community at a time, but through scale. And so what do all of these relevant global issues have in common? They can all be addressed and uplifted through sustainably managed forest and sustainable communities and collaboration. And one of the things that we do at SFI is quite a bit of programming that addresses the sustainable development goals as it relates to some of the ones up here on the screen. And what I'm going to talk to you a little bit today is how the purchase of sustainably sourced products can make a difference to promoting sustainable forest management. How you can collaborate for positive conservation outcomes and why it's essential to increase access to environmental education. First of all, as I said, you have one community at a time and hopefully with that, you start to spread the word and get scale. SFI operates in North America where we have about 115 million hectares certified to our standard. Now what that means is those standards, those forests are responsible for meeting many of the goals and requirements set out in the SDGs and sustainable forest management indicators and criteria. But what's interesting is you have a world that only 11% of the world's forests are certified. And SFI has a big portion of what's certified but it's critically important to understand there's 90% of those forests that aren't certified. So we can't stop here with the expectation, start here with the expectation of audits. We need to start local communities finding collaboratives to promote sustainable forest management as per the video we saw today and ensure that those communities can sustain themselves and hopefully grow to actually grow markets and achieve revenue and have a wide variety of other values. One of the things that we know is that when many corporations around the world announced commitments for zero tea forestation, they also wanted to ensure that they were purchasing products responsibly and there are ways to do that. We've developed a forest partners program that National Geographic Hurston McMillan support to help the growth of certification and that can be on indigenous lands, it can be on community lands, it can be on private lands and that is funding that supports to pay for responsible forest management of the resource. But certification is really a check mark to say that the forest is well managed but what do you do with those forests beyond that is what we were seeing in that area and what's so important today. So one of the things that we're trying to do with these forests that are certified is knit them together at the landscape scale and say okay, how can we identify the best management practices for water quality? How can we maintain and or recover species in decline? How can we sequester more carbon through best management practices and we have a wide variety of partnerships and a grants program that does this. So a few little case studies is we're working with the American Bird Conservancy to look at species in decline, forest bird species in decline that are along the flyway from Canada's boreal to the U.S. south and then figuring out what working with the land managers and the forest managers to say what sort of habitat is required for these species to recover them. And this is exactly the types of programs that we're doing and using that scale and that landscape to have even a larger impact beyond each forest being sustainably managed but looking at the interactions of species needs across those forests. Likewise all eyes are very focused today on addressing climate change so we have a wide variety of partnership programs that are assessing the carbon stored and flexes on our footprint that's been certified and we're also working with universities to look at what are the best management practices in our standards that sequester more carbon and in our standard revision we're putting in a climate smart forestry objective so that we can provide guidance and as well we can look at the requirements on how to achieve climate smart forestry while implementing sustainable forest management. Now one thing that people don't know well not everyone knows is that forests when they're growing sequester carbon when a forest or a tree is harvested and that has turned into a product like this solid wood product that product continues to grow more carbon and so when you regenerate the forest and a new tree grows you're getting more carbon sequestered in that tree and then you're harvesting that tree and getting more carbon. What's important though is the prompt regeneration. I remember when we were speaking to one of the youth that we're going to be hearing from today they said the goal is to plant three trees for everyone you harvest and make sure that we're constantly increasing our carbon storage and our carbon sequestration and forest products. Now one of the things I'd like to turn to now is the role of environmental education and at the sustainable forestry initiative we took on an environmental education program called project learning tree and we're hoping to expand this program globally and it provides opportunities for youth to learn about the environment through trees and forests as windows on to the world and helps teachers with learning activities and exercises as well and we would like nothing more than to collaborate with many organizations to bring some of these tools that have been developed around the world and so some of the most recent tools that we've developed are a carbon ecosystem guide for grades three to five and six to eight and they've won teachers choice awards which means they're engaging, they're understandable you can have fun with them outdoors and other award winners include National Geographic Scholastic of other programs. We've also trying to really build a kindergarten through grade eight guide on forest literacy and what should we be learning about trees and forests from preschool right up to grade eight and then once you're in high school how can we start learning about green jobs and exploring forest careers and one of the things that we just did in April on Earth Day was work with National Geographic Explorer magazine to talk about green career pathways and bring some of these green jobs to life and helping the readers of their magazine understand all of the different jobs just to keep a forest sustainably managed and letting them know how to pursue those career pathways and we're also really committed to giving job experiences they might only be four to 16 weeks but to giving these experiences to high school students and university students in our network and just in the past few years in 2018 we've placed about 2,500 youth in green jobs in the forest and park sector and to hopefully stimulate some of them aren't students yet hopefully some of them are at risk students and we hope that through these job experiences they'll be very get more interested in forest and the environment and want to pursue a career pathway and then we work to provide scholarships and sponsorship programs and partnerships to help with that pursuit and we're thrilled that we've achieved gender balance in these jobs and that 10% of those jobs have been provided to Indigenous youth so I just want to close by reminding us that sustainably managed forests provide many benefits it's at the opposite end of deforestation and if you want to look and learn a little bit more hopefully we're traveling again next year our conference will be focused on growing solutions and if you wanted to hear more about deforestation versus sustainable forest management I did a TEDx talk several years ago on this very issue because a lot of corporations were misunderstanding deforestation and they thought it meant not procuring sustainably produced forest products not doing that means you're going to undermine communities you're going to undermine sustainably managed forest so it's important to understand that part of the solution is sustainably managed forest, the communities and the procurement of forest products that are responsibly sourced thank you very much thank you Kathy for sharing all the great work you're doing at SFI I especially love the green jobs initiative we have some young people joining us today how can young people get involved in something like this well absolutely first of all if you go to pltcanada.org there's all sorts of tools and career paths and links and resources and even short videos of youth in these green jobs and so I think that's a great way to learn about some of these there's a variety of career guides as well that we're developing to highlight highlight those jobs and then we have a matching database where we can place youth in these jobs with those in the SFI network that are looking to give those job experiences wonderful thanks so much I'm looking forward to sharing that I'm sure a lot of people over on the National Geographic Education Team will be interested to learn more about what you're doing our next speaker is Mehta Wilkie who is the director of forestry policy and resource division at UNFAO her group just published the 2020 state of the world forest report and Mehta will be sharing some of these findings with us now Mehta? Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to you all it's a fantastic event, it's fantastic to be here FAO publishes what we call the state of the world forest every two years and this year for the first time we teamed up with the United Nations Environment Program and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the reason we did that was that we wanted to focus this edition on forest biodiversity and people simply because 2020 is the last year of the UN decade on biodiversity we wanted to have a publication that celebrates the diversity of forest ecosystems and all the benefits that they bring to people we also wanted to have a look at progress towards specific targets and goals related to forest biodiversity and lastly we wanted to make the case to make sure that forest are a central pillar in the new global biodiversity framework that's being developed this year and next year so let me take you on a journey but first talk a little bit about what we are using to get this information to you we used a very wide variety of existing literature but we were also lucky in that FAO also published what we call the global forest resources assessment every five years so 2020 coincided with that we had some special studies prepared for this edition in the state of the world's forest to look at forest intactness and fragmentation the links between forest and poverty and looking at trends in protected areas by forest type rather than by country and then we had a number of case studies developed specifically to look at local solutions that could come up with ideas for how you can have a positive result for both people so let's have a look at the world's forest they cover about 31% of the land area just over 4 billion hectares and as you can see from this picture they appear from the far north to the far south and they are very diverse that of course makes it very difficult to come up with some global messages that are valid for all of them but what we did here five key messages for decision makers and others involved in forestry that we wanted them to take away with them so I'll be presenting those to you today as well the first one is about the biodiversity and forests are home to the vast majority of the terrestrial biodiversity in terms of both plants and animals there are more than 60,000 different tree species in the world and most of the plants are found in tropical forests 80% of all amphibian species 3 quarters of all bird species and more than 2 thirds of all mammal species all live in forests and we're not just talking about terrestrial biodiversity forests along rivers provide shade and nutrients and in the coastal areas we have mangroves that provide breeding grounds and feeding grounds for a lot of fish and shellfish and they also protect coral reefs from sedimentation from the land so they are containing a lot of the terrestrial biodiversity but also supporting the aquatic one this means that the conservation of the world's forest is utterly dependent on the way in which we interact with the world's forest so all the world's biodiversity is dependent on how we use our forest that's our first message the second message is that all people depend upon forests and their biodiversity some of them more than others but we all do forests provide the air that we breathe they help mitigate and adapt to climate change just a couple of facts here 3 quarters of all the accessible fresh water comes from forested watersheds and 87 out of the 115 leading food species that together account for 35% of the global food production they benefit from animal pollination and also live in forests but forests also provide essential products, livelihoods and well-being they provide more than 86 million green jobs you heard about some of them already but it's also livelihoods we have also seen in the film from Uganda about people collecting fuel wood and charcoal and more than 880 million people do so we have also seen in the film from Uganda around urban areas used fuel wood for cooking their daily meals more than a billion people depend on wild food it can be fish and can be meat it can be berries and mushrooms and many of the more than 28,000 plants that are known to have medicinal use come from forest we discovered that have walk in the park or in the forest as a positive impact both of our physical and mental health and well-being so there's a very strong link between forest and human well-being unfortunately my third message is that despite all of these benefits and despite some progress deforestation and forest degradation continue at quite alarming rates I refer to earlier tells us that we're still losing 10 million hectares of forest each year they're converted to other uses it's down from 16 million hectares in the 1990s but it's still twice the size of the country of Costa Rica every three years we're losing an area that's the size of Italy so it's quite substantial and although we are also gaining some forest natural expansion or because they are planted or seeded those that we lose and those that we gain are very different most of the forest we gain are found in the temperate and boreal zones while most of the forest we lose are located in the tropics and subtropics the main driver of deforestation and forest degradation is the expansion of agriculture with large-scale agriculture accounting for some 40% and small-scale agriculture for about 33% it varies between regions and in countries but agriculture continues to be the major driver of deforestation but we also wanted to look not just at the forest in the forest area but what was happening under the canopy and deforestation is not the only important factor affecting forest biodiversity we conducted a global study of the relationship between forest cover change and population of vertebrate species and it doesn't reveal a simple relationship and that's because there are other important factors such as unsustainable exploitation could be hunting could be for other purposes but applying the living planet index approach to data from hundreds of studies that have shown that the number of living animals worldwide revealed a decline of more than 50% since 1970 this what we call the forest specialist index is a new way to monitor what's going on below the canopy so our fourth message is this that solution that balance conservation sustainable use are critical but also that they are possible that the conservation and illegal logging have gathered pace in recent years thanks in particular to the inclusion of forests in the climate change agreement and the result-based payments for reduction of deforestation and degradation in developing countries countries have also pledged to restore more than 170 million hectares of degraded forest and other landscapes so the next step is to protect at least 17% of terrestrial area by 2020 has already been exceeded for forests as a whole let me just talk a little bit about that last one because our colleagues at the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre took a deeper look at the trends and protected areas over time and as you can see from this graph there's been a very significant increase in the period from 1992 to 2015 most of it is orange that's broadly evergreen forest such as those found in the tropics if we look at forest types globally there are some 20 global ecological zones that contain some form of tree cover these are the tropical rainforest the subtropical dry forest and the temperate oceanic forest more than 30% of all the tree cover is now found in what we call legally protected areas the state of the world forest also contains numerous examples and 10 case studies that describe these local solutions that combine conservation and sustainable use of forests and they range from large-scale dry line restoration in Africa to community concessions in Guatemala forest and freshwater conservation in North America and panda friendly use of medicinal plants in China and I really encourage you to have a look at what we call SOVO 2020 the state of the world forest 2020 and these case studies that we have in there now we all know that negative trends in biodiversity undermine progress towards all of the sustainable development goals so our last and most important message to the world is this we must take bold action to reverse the loss of forests and their biodiversity for the benefit of people and the planet we must protect manage and restore our forests and their biodiversity to protect forest we do need to transform our food systems to hold the deforestation that's caused by expulsion of agriculture to manage we need to ensure positive results and outcomes for both biodiversity and people and this requires a very careful balance between conservation and sustainable use and lastly we need to restore and repair the damage that is done to the environment and to the livelihoods of people by scaling up restoration efforts since forest restoration helps restore habitats and ecosystems it creates jobs and it's an effective nature-based solution to climate change thank you very much this is where you can find some more information about this publication and if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer those thank you so much Meta it's a fascinating report I've read through it what was interesting to me is that preventing deforestation is not enough we need to also engage in reforestation projects I'm curious how can communities and individuals be a part of this effort do you have any recommendations for how we can be involved on an individual and small community level absolutely and as we've seen in the film from Uganda there are efforts on the way in many countries already but one thing that will create that momentum for everybody to work together is the next decade that the UN has well it has a number of them but one of the ones that it has that starts in 2021 is the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration it's not just about forests it's about all ecosystems and it's about repairing that damage that has been done already FAO together with the United Nations Environment Program again are co-leading that effort so we have been reaching out to stakeholders across the world we've had a number of consultation meetings with governments and in connection with some big international meetings we've had a number of consultations done by a youth organization that reached out to other youth organizations to find out how they can be involved in this because it is not enough to look at how we can do something in a small area or we can do something in a large scale we all need to be involved and we all can be involved this is about restoring the quality of the local environment that we have it's about planting trees in the schoolyard it's about cleaning up the local little dam or lake it's about some beach cleaning up it's about looking at how we can do that we also need to do it at large scale so we're trying to see how we can get both governments who have committed to that but also the private sector and investors to be involved in that and that's where I think forestry and planting of trees has a huge potential simply because it has other benefits as well so it creates those green jobs it does protect the biodiversity but importantly as well it mitigates climate change as we also heard from Kathy so there are private sectors that are engaged increasingly wanting to be involved in this simply because they see that's a way to also help with the climate change challenge that we have thank you and I think the message I'd also like to convey is that this is a very hopeful decade these sorts of restoration projects are possible and I know we at National Geographic have done several film series and magazine articles about community conservation efforts that have brought back species that had previously been extinct and seen a real regeneration in their ecosystems absolutely yeah I'm one of the focal points for the decade together with one of my colleagues in FAO and one from UNEP and I've sort of been promoting the tagline saying restoring ecosystems, restoring hope and it is just about that and I think there's a link to all of the sustainable development goals there's a real link to seeing this as something positive everybody can be involved in from age 5 to 95 at least great I agree I love that thank you well our next guest we're very fortunate to have you'll recognize him as one of the subjects in our film today A Journey Without a Map he also brings a unique perspective today as both an employee of the New Forest Company and a member of the community where the company operates Alex you have an interesting role at New Forest Company as the head of corporate social responsibility can you tell us about your work leading the company's community development program thank you Vanessa New Forest Company is a certified successful vertical integrated Greenfield Forest and Timber Processing Company we have been operating in Uganda since 2005 we have three plantations covering almost 22,000 hectares most of it from formerly degraded land a pole treatment plant and a sawmill about 40% of our land holding is actually reserved for conservation and the main we have poles, transmission, telephone building poles, structural timber pallets and renewable energy our main customers are rural electrification agencies and beverage logistic companies with a commitment to sustainability for pallets the NFC business philosophy is really what attracted me to New Forest in the first place it's based on creating shared value from three pillars which is commerce, conservation and community really and my particular responsibility as you mentioned in New Forest is that sea which deals with community and if any we believe if any of these pillars fails then the other two also fails so it's not a question of one versus the other they are three pillars it is a stool without one leg it doesn't work and this is something that we have vividly seen during this period when we have been going through the COVID pandemic those of us who are on the front line of managing the relationship between community and company you know there is no isolation there is no imaginary boundary line in the community work the company partners with the New Forest foundation to do community development, community engagement and upliftment, some of the joint initiatives which excite me include the community payment for risk management on the plantations we call it forest for prosperity a term that was coined in a collaborative and participatory manner with the forest adjacent communities the other aspect is formalization of community tree growers association into the NFC supply chain plus various livelihoods augmentation programs such as agriculture whereby hives and other things are placed in the 40% area of the NFC conservation so that communities get added benefits out of that and then agroforestry and then access to a microfinance partner for savings in all this we use the free prior informed consent whereby we sit and we co-design community projects building trust as well as agency while helping me to get against climate change with both our community co-partners and the local governments that we work with thank you that's very interesting I love the concept of co-designing community projects is that how some of these ideas like the beehives in the conservation area and the microfinance programs came about how do you look at these co-developed and co-designed projects absolutely because under the shared value process we are looking to see aligned interests between the objectives of the company and the objectives of the community so this involves a process usually spanning eight 12 months sitting down with the different communities what does prosperity look for you what does success look for you we want a forest to be there but we also want you to be there it is not exclusivity there is a certain common space that we must share both you and the plantation so how best do we do that in a way that speaks to the interests of all of us so that's where the new forest shared value concept comes in and that is what actually gave root rise to the forest for prosperity program that we're talking about I'm curious what are some of the challenges you've encountered in initiating this approach some of the challenges that we encounter really is first of all aligning interests is a long-term community process you must give yourself the time you must be able to come with the mindset of listening so in a way CSR in new forests is in this curious position of really being like a mediator we have the company we have the community and we are trying to facilitate these two parties to come together to see how best each one can have their interests being met in that process and this has worked out for both the the forest for prosperity in terms of the people in the process of formalizing the outgrowers into the NFC supply chains we have seen that outgrowers have very many challenges one of our experience in Uganda is that people from new forests is that people want to plant trees but they face so many challenges from access to good quality inputs like seedlings the whole question of land use these are people who usually have very little land holdings we had that from the film 5 acres that's a well of family so how do you give them information technical skills and knowledge to say what is the best land use you can do things like agroforestry you want to plant a bit of trees but you must use also that same land must support you in all your other needs and this is an ongoing conversation with our outgrowers to see how best we support you to motivate you to do this important work incidentally which is very long term because the benefits from trees the commercial takes a long term if you're looking at pine and eucalyptus of course there are other species where agroforestry comes in where they grow indigenous and food trees which speak to food species which help with firewood fast maturing but the mutual area or the aligned interest with the company comes into the products that can feed into its supply chain so the company comes with this in working with the outgrowers we've been saying how do we design a program that speaks to their holistic needs while also providing something for the company and one of the biggest things we've seen in these two issues for outgrowers is the need for a microfinance partner to provide some support for the shocks and then also the relationship with new fortress assuring them of a market when somebody grows their trees and they have finally matured where do they get a market not from middlemen you had from the film Martin speaking of a tree going for between 80 to 120,000 Uganda shillings middlemen want to give a farmer 20,000 30,000 NFC guaranteeing a market mitigates that risk so the whole balance of the company working with the community is about creating an arena for building agency and sitting down together and saying how can we join forces to fight poverty to build agency to fight marginalization in ways that reinforce each other to help us combat climate change interesting I love your quote at the end of the film where you say you have to make things work in your home country have you seen progress and are you hopeful that you're on the right path yes there has been plenty of progress I really want to thank James for the film he said it was two years ago one positive note I was reading in the local press recent to the director of our national forest authority saying the decline it has been steep about 122,000 hectares per year being lost for the last 20 years and he was saying that the decline is it seems it's slowing down it's it is being reduced we might be reaching a plateau so it's early days yet but there is that there is that progress and why is that so that is so because I believe one of the issues that more and more people are participating in planting trees for one reason or another they work in new forests that would be in Uganda I think we are working with 6000 out growers and there are other companies there are there's a big seedling distribution program by the NFA itself there has been a lot of support by the what we call the solo production scheme which is managed by the FAO in giving subsidies to the people who want to plant trees and it was interesting in the third phase that they opened up what we call the community aspect because before the users to put a limit of 25 hectares for somebody to participate but this time they said if people local people in a village can come together and combine and demonstrate that they can put together 25 hectares they would work with them and I have evidence that in the places where new forests works as part of our work in CSR we have helped organize people to come together and build their capacity to be able to participate and benefit from the SPGS program so there there is progress in that regard but that progress can only be sustained I believe because for the last 10 15 years more and more people have been planting trees we need to wait for the next two three years to find out whether the trend will be reversed because we need to confirm that the people who are now about to harvest or who have started harvesting will actually replant that requires them to be motivated that motivation requires us to address certain bottlenecks I think one of the colleague panelist mentioned it in the market so one of the things that we are looking at seriously is saying to address this challenge probably in a holistic manner we need to go the landscape approach individuals like new forests putting up your own forest estate just won't do it we need to look at an entire landscape where you have the nucleus company with this nucleus estate the forest adjacent neighbors the local government the other stakeholders civil society central government these have important roles to play in setting the right tone the environment the regulatory framework in order to make investment in forestry profitable which will be what motivates individuals to reinvest in planting trees and that is core in a country like Uganda with this with our high population density that is ballooning every year literally and the land area is not increasing urbanization is at a very small small portion of the population so what do you do we need to look at options that give that provide for sustainable land use in an integrated manner that rural populations can be able to get increase the productivity from the the small land parcels that they hold oh sorry I was going to say and you're we're now looking at bringing up the next generation to be part of this effort and I know we're really fortunate to have some very special guests that Alex knows well as well coming to us from farthest high school in Uganda which was featured in today's film Owen Samata and Agnes Nassanda who will share their perspectives on the importance of sustainable forestry Agnes and Owen thanks so much for joining us I think you have some things prepared to tell tell the group today yeah Agnes Nassande a student of Forest Air School Cassandra District in Kanda Village for us to protect forest for sustainable livelihood we have to live alone in the forest station and not only living alone in the forest station but we have also to plant more trees and I have come up with some of the causes of the forest station in our country one is poverty since we have electricity in our in our district so some people end up depleting the forest to get charcoal or fuel and others to get money another one is poverty another one is overpopulation in Uganda today the population is increasing rapidly whereby we are having now 43 million people of which 15 million people are school going children so remember the population is increasing rapidly but the land is not increasing so people end up practicing forestation to get more land current their activities and for settlement and as Alex said please let people make things work in our own country and as my ambition is to become a doctor I will keep on advising people to plant trees with the crops so as to improve on their diet thank you, thank you Agnes we are in the same town 18 years in Cassander District the problem is that we have that for us to protect forest for sustainable livelihood how just to live alone in forestation and as my fellow has pointed out that one of the causes of forestation is lack of power and I'm happy because I heard that there is an ongoing campaign of bringing electricity to our site and electricity will do decrease on like the forest like the deforestation in such a way that people will at least use electricity as a source of fuel instead of cutting down trees and power will not only be used just for like to protect our forest we also have like here at school be capable of revising during the night preps so that we make our grades good others since electricity can provide a cheaper source of power compared to these power generators and just facilitating the solar panel like buying regulators batteries and so on so people will just get a cheaper source of power thus establishing industries in our area and that will reduce on the poverty levels of people in our area and in such a way to also protect forests because some of the causes of deforestation is poverty. People do look for money like they cut the band chapel to look for money if our industries are brought in our area due to electricity that will arrive soon and that will give people a chance and even forests to live and my message to the world is that if for instance you cut one tree let us plan like 14 to replace those cut one. Thanks. Thank you both for joining us today it's really important to hear your perspective on sustainable forestry and the issues like power and school tuition and that you have brought up. Thank you. Next we will hear from Huma Khan our final speaker as World Wildlife Fund's global communication lead for forests Huma collaborated with James on today's film as part of her work to develop stories of forest work across the globe. Huma. Thank you Vanessa and thank you FAO National Geographic Society for inviting me to participate in this webinar it is really heartening to hear the diverse views and I think the one common message we're hearing is that the need to tackle deforestation and forest degradation has never been greater than what it is to create a world where people and nature thrive together our vision is of a world enriched by extensive resilient forest landscapes that benefit biodiversity people as well as climate and by 2030 we're working to end deforestation protect and improve the management of the world's forests and help restore forest landscapes around the world as we've heard today many others deforestation continues to be a big threat and though the rate of loss may have declined its deforestation globally continues to increase most of this loss is in the tropics and subtropics and that's particularly alarming because these regions are home to more than half of the world's forests our research shows that by far the greatest driver of deforestation is agriculture however there are a number of other pressures on forests for example coming from extractive industries that lead to fragmentation and over time deforestation so it is important to address those as well and not overlook them either and what our work and recent trends show that deforestation will continue to rise unless there is concerted and collective action that is tailored to each country and region we've heard about the work that's going on in Uganda and it is important based on our experience that unless we take local communities and local stakeholders on the journey to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation the responses will not be successful in lowering the rate of deforestation in some countries area-based responses in particular have contributed to halting deforestation in local context but given the scale of the problem we need to do more we know that one single response is not going to be enough to address the scale of the problem and address this issue of rising deforestation we need tailored and we need integrated responses that take local communities and local contexts into account that include the voices of all the stakeholders and that work for nature but also people and we at WWF we want to see a world where forests are properly valued for the many many benefits they provide whether it's clean air and water whether it is wood and we know it is possible with better protection forests can provide a welcome home for wildlife they can help stabilize the climate and provide resources such as clean water to local communities as well as indigenous people who rely directly on forest resources and with sustainable management we can meet the growing demand for wood products without damaging the local environment and it is a very important component of also providing sustainable livelihoods for local communities so in a few weeks time we at WWF will be launching a new platform called Forest Forward and it brings together communities, businesses governments, financial institutions as well as civil society organizations to advance sustainable forest management and trade and with better planning with better land use planning we can hold deforestation and produce enough food without having to convert forests to farmland and we can go even further by replanting and restoring forests taking a full landscape approach and this can help address climate change extend and reconnect wildlife habitats and reduce problems like flooding and erosion what the key is that we need the involvement of all stakeholders we need governments national governments, regional governments, local governments companies that have local companies as well as global companies that have a footprint consumers, youth organizations, civil society organizations and most importantly indigenous people and local communities who are the best stewards of forests we need the financial community to be more closely involved in raising awareness about the risk of deforestation both from a financial perspective as well as a livelihood perspective there are examples of landscape level approaches that have shared benefit for all stakeholders we just heard about this concept of shared benefit and how it is important to ensure that all stakeholders are on board I'd like to highlight two cases in particular because they're good examples of approaches that have involved a diverse group of stakeholders and we've heard a lot about Uganda we're going to move a little bit away and focus on this example from Latin America and it is really interesting because one thing we have seen is that across the board the challenges the community space, the challenges that companies face and governments face are quite similar however the approaches need to be adapted to the local context in this particular community in Oaxaca, Mexico there has been huge forest loss to make way for agriculture they've been affected by fire and climate change and that in turn had a huge impact on the water quality and quantity it eroded the soil, it undermined the livelihoods of local communities so WWF working in conjunction with a number of local organizations including a youth group led by a leader who was very passionate about bringing change to her community tried to develop locally led solutions to managing forest, soil and water in a way that benefits people in nature the goal was to ensure that everyone in the landscape had enough clean water to meet their needs that meant working across the watershed on everything from training farmers to use water more efficiently to restore native trees around water courses to monitor water quality there's more information about this on our website but the main lesson learned is that it is important to include local communities in this case particularly women and youth who led a lot of the local cooperatives in decision making from the start and that is a key component of success on the ground another example I'd like to highlight is in Russia this was created at the end of last year and it came out of 17 years of advocacy efforts led by WWF and other civil society organizations and there are very few places on earth that still hold large expanses of pristine forest large intact forests and Russia is one of them and this particular landscape is increasingly rare local communities have relied on it for hundreds of years for hunting and fishing collecting local mushrooms, berries and medicinal plants but this particular part forest intact forest landscape in Russia was under tremendous pressure because there was unsustainable logging once companies harvested on one side they just moved on to another there were no effective forestry operations no thinning or replanting so our estimate showed that if the current trends continued this tiger forest could become extinct in 15 to 20 years and also impacting the very many ecosystem services that this forest holds for local communities and the country and region as a whole and working with local timber companies working with local communities working with the regional government this landscape reserve was created and it was really interesting because forestry companies may seem like unlikely advocates for a protected reserve but in this case it actually recognized that it was important for their own future it was important for the viability of future wood supply so again an example of something that can work it is important to have long-term commitment and collaboration among all the key stakeholders and to involve everyone from the start and just finally I'd like to highlight the current situation we have all been affected by which is COVID-19 it has really highlighted the many vulnerabilities of societies around the world but I think what it has really showed us effectively is that human health and planetary health are linked so we might not see that connection directly but it is very clear and we know that land use changes which include deforestation and forest degradation have contributed to almost half of the emerging zoonotic diseases in humans and it is directly connected to how we use land how we produce and consume food how we use land to meet our daily needs and increasing forest loss land conversion among other factors like illegal wildlife trade are all contributing to dangerous environments that lead to the spillovers of diseases the jumping of disease from animals to humans so we're at a time where we face a profound question both at the global level at the country level at the local level how can we provide enough healthy food within planetary boundaries how can we use land in a sustainable way to meet the needs of a global population that will top 10 billion within three decades while halting deforestation while addressing climate change and reversing the loss of nature and I think we're at a very critical juncture and how we build in the post-recovery phase will be very important for people in nature like we at WWF are calling for a new deal for nature and people one that ensures that the voices of local and indigenous communities are heard to protect, restore and maintain the resources that sustain us all and the immense disruption that has been caused by COVID-19 it gives us license to think big in 2021 we can look forward to the UN climate and biodiversity conferences as well as the UN food system summit and this is an unmissable opportunity to shape a better world a world in which there is enough healthy food for everyone a world in which there are enough resources for everyone equitable resources and one in which we avoid dangerous climate change and protect and safeguard our forests and reverse the loss of nature and my final message is just let's use this crisis as an opportunity to change things for the better Thank you Huma, very interesting and we'll now begin we have time for a short question and answer session with our panelists so I will begin we have a lot of great questions from our audience today we'll have to narrow it down and ask just a few the first is I think relevant to Huma in particular how can we accelerate our understanding of this need to protect forests all over the world how are you communicating all of the wonderful ideas you shared in your presentation that's a very good question and it again is something that involves working across across the stakeholders we need to influence these global agreements that are happening but we need to influence national policy makers as well and again I cannot reiterate this enough really involve local communities and take up take local youth organizations and civil society organizations on this journey whether it is hunting a tree in your backyard or whether it's advocating for deforestation free commitments from companies and governments I think at every level we need to raise awareness about the loss of nature about the loss of forests and how important it is in our daily lives thank you does anyone else have any of our other panelists like to add to that how are you communicating some of the ideas you shared with us today I just like to add that I think it's important when we talk about how do we protect our forests I think what this conversation is demonstrating is how do we protect the variety of forest values the variety of value services and benefits that come from forests while engaging local communities and I think that's a knowledge that's evolving that people are increasingly understanding that sustainable use leads to sustainable communities and that can be done in a way that builds new forests or prevents forest loss as opposed to putting a fence around something in a strict form of protection and not enabling communities to benefit from that and so I think we're in a new generation where protection means sustainable forest management for multiple values to sustain people and the forest values that come from it and I think that's really critical to understand and I know that even with the new protected area targets that have been set that are so important they're now looking at not just strictly protected areas but other effective conservation measures known as OECMs and that is how can you get the same conservation outcomes but while having forest management and I think this is an evolution that's just super important if we want to sustain communities Yes, that's a great point and I think that's something that many of our panelists touched on today and a real change in thinking in the conservation world and I think that's something we have another question that's related that I think Alex can address is how can we use the private sector to how can we encourage businesses and the private sector to use these sorts of sustainable practices and engage with local communities Come again How can businesses and the private sector engage with local communities in efforts like this I think one of the answers I would like to say is looking at the landscape approach and that which should be able to create a space that is bringing different actors the private sector public civil society because there are different aspects, regulatory and that kind of thing and within that area deliberately create space for communities and other important stakeholders to participate so that is one way I think that we need to go and it's I think the principle way that I can probably put across is the issue of the need to diversify products that come from the forests following up on the issue that we are encouraging people to plant a tree benefits in the backyard I might not be able to sell it but probably if there are diversified products like for example carbon I might be able to participate in that particular aspect not necessarily in the timber aspect and then the third issue I would say is that businesses, private sector forestry businesses really need to work to create, deliberately work to create space for small holders to participate in their value chains because forestry by nature is a long-term business and if people are assured that they have a relationship which is based on mutual trust, mutual respect and the returns are known that would serve as an encouragement for more people to actually join into planting trees it seems like a crucial component is hiring people in a position like yours to be a liaison with the community thank you Vanessa actually our entire DSR department in Uganda is entirely local we are all Ugandans but more importantly all our CDOs and community officers are people also who come from the respective communities where we have operations so that I thought is an obvious point but thank you it's very important and may not be obvious to everyone so thank you for sharing that we'll have one more question to anyone on the panel how can a rural community organization engage in sustainable forest projects can I perhaps start with that sure one of the things we've seen and following a bit up on what Alex was saying about this diversifying of the products so diversifying the basket of products that you have to offer to make sure that what you have on your land is economically viable in the long term the other one of course is to band together in cooperatives in forest or producer organizations so that you have lots of people involved with each with a small piece of land but together they can prepare and send products out in bulk and we've seen that as a very positive way of increasing the value of the land and the products that are being sold but also as a very good way of making sure that you have an organization that can help with the capacity building that's there by making the links those that would buy the products and add the value to it at the local level so having these forest and farmer producer organizations is a very good way of doing that thank you thank you Metta it's time to wrap up so I'd like to ask each of our panelists to provide a short closing statement a key takeaway you'd like to leave with with the audience today we'll start with Kathy thank you I'd like to point people's attention to the Trillian Trees initiative which is to address climate change and forest loss and to plant trees it's at 1t.org and it's a platform of the World Economic Forum designed to support the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration led by UNEP and FAO and certainly that is a platform where funders can also be found to help plant trees across the world frankly and so perhaps some local communities can be connected through this platform thank you for that and if you look in the chat we've shared the link to the Trillian Trees initiative Metta do you have a closing statement for us hope you're on mute Metta we've heard so much today about the benefits of forest both for the biodiversity but also for the people and I think that's one of the key messages we want to take back with us particularly at the moment whom I was saying that we need to take the opportunity of this pandemic to build back better and we've heard so much about nature-based solutions and forest really are the ultimate nature-based solutions in that they do provide the jobs and the livelihoods they do provide the habitats for biodiversity and they can help mitigate climate change and adapt to it but at the same time they can help us with this building back better because we do need to have a look at the economic solution that's coming in the wake of the pandemic and that's where forest can really help we've seen all of these pictures of people that are leaving the cities because they've lost their jobs they've come out to the rural areas to the countryside and their social network their social protection if you will are the forest in many cases so we need to make sure that we protect the forest that we use them conserve them in a sustainable manner and we make them part of the solution so it's a matter that all of us know how important they are but it's a matter that we do speak to those that are preparing those stimulus packages for addressing that economic recession so that we do take them into account and that we use forest as the stepping stone for building back better Thank you Thank you, Huma, closing statement Yeah so I'll build on Meta's remarks I think building back better is going to be very important I think we need to a time for us to reassess business and move away from business as usual and I will again reiterate that we need integrated solutions there's no silver bullet to safeguarding the world's forests we need a multi-pronged approach that takes many of these different solutions into account we need responses that take local context into account and develop locally led solutions that work for everyone Thank you, Huma, Alex I think for me what I would simply like to re-emphasize again is the landscape approach in a way that creates space for communities to be helped to be facilitated to address poverty to address marginalization to build agency change the dependence in mindset empower them because they have at least one important resource that we need in this whole issue of refrigeration which is that they have land they need to be given the technical knowledge and skills to enable them to make a contribution in a way that enhances their livelihoods that doesn't threaten their livelihoods it should not be a choice of I planted tree or I do something else there are ways in which limited land can be utilized effectively including the growing of trees and it's the ability of people like us on this panel and in this webinar to make that information available to small households thank you Thank you Alex and finally James we began with your film do you have any closing thoughts to leave us with? I think it's been amazing to hear so many different points of view from around the world today all at the same time and that's obviously you know partly an outcome of the COVID-19 crisis that we've all been able to use technology in this way and to come together I think we need to do much more of that and to find ways of bringing in voices that aren't normally heard in this conversation and I think we've done quite a good job of that today I think COVID has to be a wake up call for everyone and you know we it's an incredible opportunity to really demonstrate the limits of the limits that are placed on us here on earth so yeah I think I'd just like to thank everyone for joining today and for giving us a chance to play our films so thank you Thank you James and a big thank you to all of our panelists for joining us today and thank you to FAO for hosting this wonderful presentation and this wonderful webinar really I feel like this has been just the start of this important conversation and I hope that it continues both in all of your networks and again for more information on the sustainable forestry and the state of the world's forest report we've shared the link in the chat thank you everyone again for joining us to continuing the conversation offline