Watch a recording of the event here.

Overview: Across the globe, governments are taking action to respond to forest loss and land degradation, and many have committed to take transformative action to slow deforestation, restore degraded forests, and better manage and conserve existing forests. Such commitments aim to harness the potential of forests to reduce poverty, contribute to economic growth, and deliver on national and global commitments to slow climate change, conserve biodiversity and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The World Bank Group supports client countries in their efforts to deliver on forest and terrestrial ecosystem climate commitments through programs that combine complementary interventions and a range of financing tools to deliver results at scale. Depending on country needs, such programs start from analytical work and local assessments of drivers of forest loss and degradation, then progress to establish an enabling environment for forest management and conservation through policy reform, institutional capacity building and technical assistance, investment in forest conservation and management, including local communities and stakeholders – leading to improved forest and landscape outcomes yielding result-based finance. To be transformative, such country programs usually need to be implemented over 10 to 15 years. The World Bank engages with the government and key stakeholders to develop long-term strategic forest sector programs based on sequenced interventions that build technical and institutional capacity and establish an integrated portfolio of projects supported by financing from IDA/IBRD and forest and climate related trust funds administered by the World Bank.  This side event will show case results achieved in Ghana and Mozambique.

Format: The session was organized as hybrid via Zoom platform and in-person from a conference room in Seoul, Republic of Korea. 

Moderator: Garo Batmanian, Global Lead for Forests, Landscapes, and Biodiversity, The World Bank (in Seoul) 

Agenda & Speakers:

• Environment: PROGREEN

Timothy Brown, Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist, The World Bank  

Edith Abruquah, Acting Executive Director, Forest Services Division – Ghana   

• Climate Change: FCPF, ISIL & CERF

Simon Whitehouse, Fund Manager, FCPF, The World Bank

Aristides Muhate, MRV Coordinator, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development -Mozambique 

This event was held on May 4 as part of the XV World Forestry Congress in Seoul, Korea.