The historic outcomes of the seventh session represent a unique call to action for the international forest community, to ensure that these decisions reached through internationally-agreed consensus are fully implemented, through collective action imbued yet with a sense of individual responsibility.

One of the areas upon which the Secretariat will be increasingly focusing its attention is the timely issue of climate change. The contribution of forests to addressing climate change, as well as the impact of climate change on forests and sustainable forest management, has been well-recognized, world-over. The discussions taking place under the UNFCCC on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation are of great interest and relevance to the work of the Forum. Discussions are currently underway with the UNFCCC Secretariat, and I believe that we have made big strides in our mutual understanding on the need for enhanced cooperation between our two Secretariats.
Moreover, I strongly believe that well-managed forests are the best solution to complement a balanced set of actions toward combating climate change. On the widely-publicized issue of “avoided deforestation”, the forest sector has much to offer in assessing and monitoring deforestation levels. In addition, as discussions at the Forum have highlighted, the topics of forest-dependant livelihoods and the contributions of good forest management practices are most worthy of a place in the current international debate on climate change.
Our new multi-year programme of work maps out a clear and ambitious agenda through the year 2015. This new and strengthened mandate of the Forum has, therefore, direct implications on the UNFF Secretariat. Consequently, I call upon and invite our respected international forest policy community to lend their support to strengthen the Secretariat and help us continue to meet the challenges ahead, as you have so often and well done in the past, and as we work together toward a most exciting future.

UNFF8 Preparations
The eighth session of the Forum is scheduled to take place from 20 April - 1 May 2009 at UN Headquarters in New York. The themes of the session are: 
“Forests in a changing environment”, which includes the sub-themes of Forests and climate change; Reversing the loss of forest cover, preventing forest degradation in all types of forests and combating desertification, including low forest cover countries; and Forests and biodiversity conservation, including protected areas
“Means of implementation for sustainable forest management”, which will involve deciding upon a voluntary global financial mechanism/portfolio approach/forest financing framework to support the implementation of sustainable forest management, the achievement of the Global Objectives on Forests and the implementation of the non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests
A provisional agenda for the session is available on the UNFF website.
UNFF8 Bureau
Dr. Modesto Fernandez Diaz-Silveira (Cuba), Dr. Boen M. Purnama (Indonesia), Mr. Arvids Ozols (Latvia) and Mr. Abdellah Benmellouk (Morocco) have been nominated to the UNFF8 Bureau. The nomination from the Western Europe and Other States (WEOG) to the Bureau is currently pending. The first meeting of the UNFF8 Bureau is scheduled to take place from 6-7 Sept 2007. The meeting will discuss the outcome of UNFF7 and preparations for UNFF8.

For more information on the UNFF8 Bureau, please refer to the UNFF website.