The 13th World Forestry Congress, convened in Argentina in October 2009, notes with concern the impacts of climate change on forests and strongly emphasizes the important role forests play in climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as the need for forest-dependent people and forest ecosystems to adapt to this challenge.
Forests are more than carbon. They harbor two thirds of all land-based biodiversity, and generate critical ecosystem goods and services such as water, food, and income from over 5000 commercial forest products. Forests sustain the cultural and spiritual identity of billions of people, foremost among them the indigenous peoples and local communities.  Forests contribute positively to the global carbon balance. Maintaining high carbon stocks by reducing deforestation and forest degradation and promoting the sustainable management of all types of forests, including the conservation of biodiversity, forest protection and restoration, must be amongst the world’s highest  priorities for the forestry sector; sustainable forest management provides an effective framework for forest-based climate change mitigation and adaptation; for forests to fully achieve their potential in addressing the challenges of climate change, forest governance must be improved, financing and capacity building must be enhanced, and processes to empower disenfranchised people, including indigenous peoples and other forest dependent communities, be strengthened; sustainably harvested forest products and wood fuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions if they substitute neutral or low emission, renewable materials for high-emission materials; accurate forest monitoring and assessment help inform decision-making and should be strengthened in a coordinated and transparent manner; and actions on climate change mitigation and adaptation in forestry would benefit from a more active engagement of forestry professionals.
The 13th WFC stresses the need to reduce poverty as a driver of deforestation and to safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples and forest-dependent communities, and recognizes the important roles that the private sector and civil society play in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

F. Inagamov