Policy/Science interface for international forest development

Situation

The central part of the study deals with an in-depth follow-up assessment of the HAFL study titled “Outlook 2020-2030: Forest in multilateral agreements and similar processes”, elaborated in 2019 for consideration by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). The ambition is to broaden the overview of the landscape of processes and initiatives, and to analyze these in view of long-term drivers of global transformational change. An assessment of this overview would indicate how forests and sustainable forest management (SFM) could more coherently contribute to transformational “green” change and sustainable development. As such, the study provides a scientific input to the implementation of the Swiss international forest strategy. The study and assessment are to be presented at the IDANE Wald meetings in spring 2021 and other fora, as requested by FOEN. An additional, independent work comprises a study on Forest Landscape Restoration in Eastern and South-East Europe, prepared for the Ministerial Roundtable on Forest Landscape Restoration. This report is prepared and peer-reviewed in the framework of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on behalf of FOEN. Due to the Corona crisis, the initial report prepared for a planned Ministerial Roundtable had been postponed. Thus, the technical background document prepared by HAFL on behalf of FOEN and submitted in May 2021 is being reviewed and updated to reflect the changed situation by December 2020.