The role of forests in water related natural risk management
IUCN, together with the Forestry Commission of Japan is convening a topic session, which will review common narratives on the interactions between forests and water and their relationship to risk management.

Keynote addresses will be delivered by the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry of South Africa, Mrs. Buyelwa Patience Sonjica and the Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica, Mrs. Carlos Manuel Rodríguez. A state-of-knowledge presentation on the role of forests in hydrology will be given by Dr. Sampurno Bruijnzeel from the Vrije Universiteit.
Mrs. Leimona Beria from ICRAF/Indonesia will present Rewarding Upland Poor for Environmental Services (RUPES) -programme and Makato Tani from the Kyoto University International the Network on Forests and Water as local actions for a global challenge.
Private sector perspective is brought into the session by Dirk Reinhard from Munich Re Foundation and Marcio Amazonas from the Coca Cola Company. The Science and Technology Correspondent of the Economist, Mr. Konstantin Kakaes will represent media at the expert panel
Specific topics discussed during the session include, among others, the role of forests in relation to water-related natural disasters (floods, drought, water quality), payment for environmental services, and microinsurances.
IUCN
What is the World Conservation Union?
The World Conservation Union is the world’s largest and most important conservation network. The Union brings together 82 States, 111 government agencies, more than 800 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries in a unique worldwide partnership.
The Union’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.
The World Conservation Union is a multicultural, multilingual organization with 1000 staff located in 62 countries. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland.
What does IUCN stand for?
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
Use of the name “World Conservation Union” began in 1990, but the full name and the acronym are often used together as many people still know the Union as IUCN.
The World Conservation Union was founded in October 1948 as the International Union for the Protection of Nature (or IUPN) following an international conference in Fontainebleau, France. The organization changed its name to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1956.