01-11-2015 - Dear colleagues,
It was a privilege for me and other FAO Forestry colleagues to meet you at the XIV World Forestry Congress in Durban. We would like to thank you once again for your invaluable contributions to the presentations, discussions and outcome documents.
The consensus is that the Congress was an extremely important event for global forestry and that it has given us a clear vision of where to focus our future attention and action. The outcome documents will be of particular relevance as we move towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as for the negotiations on climate change at COP21 in Paris in December.
As you may know, FAO’s support to forestry communities and countries in sustainable forest management dates back several decades. To increase awareness about the scope and nature of this support and FAO’s key work with partners and member countries, the Department produces a monthly e-newsletter, inFO news.  I am forwarding to you the link to the latest issue, 33, which has just been distributed. You will note in the section on the XIV Congress that we have prepared summaries of some key FAO-partner events to provide those of you who couldn’t be present with a more complete picture of the main discussion points and conclusions. We also have the regular sections on recent and upcoming activities and events in Forestry and Global News, plus new publications and videos.
I’m sure you will find some of these items and information of interest, so please do take a moment to look through this issue and pass on the link to your colleagues, partners and networks.  By sharing information in this way, we can help raise the profile of forestry and promote positive developments and change in global forestry, for the benefit for forestry communities.
Many thanks and best regards,
Eva Muller
Director, Forest Economics, Policy and Products Division
OIC, FAO Forestry Department communications