UNFF EIGHTH SESSION
20 April - 1 May 2009, United Nations, UNHQ, New York
Organiser: UNFF
The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) was established in 2000, following a five-year period of forest policy dialogue facilitated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) and the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF).

The main objective of the UNFF is to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. The UNFF is open to all States and provides forums for continued policy development and dialogue among governments, international organizations, and Major Groups. 
CEPF is a focal point for one of the nine major group representing Farmers and Small Forest Landowners and submitted a Discussion Paper for the UNFF8 session. 
http://www.un.org/esa/forests/pdf/session_documents/unff8/2009_13_add_5_AV.pdf
Summary

Large parts of the world forests are governed by forest owners and community forestry. Most of the properties and managed areas are small or medium sized. Family forestry and community forestry work to secure sustainable forest development. The organisation of the forest owners and community forestry is vital in enabling the small and medium sized properties to be economic viable, carefully managed and give essential contributes to local livelihood.
The importance of forest owners’ organisation and the economic cooperation among family and community foresters need to be recognised and supported. Together with secure property and land tenure rights, organisations controlled by the active foresters themselves are a prerequisite for sustainable management in a changing environment taking care of forests and bio diversity. The foresters must be enabled to organise themselves and not “being organised” by others. The reciprocal cooperation with industry, state forest and governments is however vital and of mutual interest.