Overview

As part of the 16th session of the UN Forest Forum, the World Bank will organize a side event on forest knowledge and partnership initiatives for impact. This side event will highlight how the World Bank-hosted Program on Forests (PROFOR) contributed knowledge and tools on key themes to advance sustainable forest management. PROFOR remained relevant, technically strong and innovative over its 18 years at the World Bank. From 2002 to 2020, it received $52 million from its donors and implemented over 270 activities across its four themes of livelihoods, governance, finance and cross-sectoral collaboration. These activities in turn leveraged approximately $1.6 billion of World Bank lending, a significant achievement in influence for a knowledge program. The event will feature some of the tools produced under PROFOR that remain relevant and useful to sustainable forest management and design of forest and landscape interventions, such as the forest governance diagnostic, benefit-sharing tool, and PRIME framework for assessing pathways out of poverty.

Looking forward, the session will also present two new partnership programs at the World Bank – the PROGREEN Partnership for Sustainable Landscapes and new umbrella fund the Climate Emissions Reduction Facility (CERF) and how these new initiatives bring new innovations and additional financing to support the transformation of forest landscapes to meet national and global sustainable development, climate and biodiversity targets and commitments.