The International Year of Forests, 2011 Celebrating Forests for People

The International Year of Forests, 2011 Celebrating Forests for People Forests are essential renewable resources that are important for the survival and wellbeing of people around the World. They provide shelter, food and medicine to people and are a major habitat for biodiversity. They provide clean water and play a vital role in maintaining a stable climate and preserving the environment, to name a few. In order to highlight the important role of forests, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests. It is meant to raise awareness about the need for sustainable management, conservation and development of all types of forests and to inspire a sense of personal responsibility and stewardship towards a greener, more equitable and sustainable future. Although the Arab region is one of the poorest in terms of forests cover, forests and trees are highly important for the region as they protect the fragile environment, stabilize land and dunes, control erosion and desertification, and regulate hydrologic flows. They also provide other benefits, such as fuel wood for the poorest, construction materials for the expanding cities, exportable Gum Arabic (also known as gum acacia) in Sudan, and nuts and various other edible products throughout the region. Nevertheless, they are being destroyed at unprecedented levels due to road construction, city expansions, quarrying and mining, forest fires and canal construction, etc. But one of the main reasons is also pure neglect. Indeed, the Arab region has failed to reverse – or even stop – the loss of forest cover, and as a result the total Arab forest cover dropped from 7.2 percent in 1990 to 6.4 percent in 2007 with Sudan alone losing about 54,000 hectares of forests every year. The challenges facing the forests and wooded areas of the region are numerous, including the lack of well-defined ownership, lack of adequate resources both financial and human (notably for reforestation efforts), lack of appropriate technologies as well as pervasive and widespread market and policy failures. As a result, countries of the region rely heavily on imports in order to meet their wood product needs and in fact trade in related products is well in excess of a billion dollar every year, thereby draining heavily the hard-earned foreign reserves of the region, particularly in the poorest and non-oil exporting countries. The advent of this International Year of Forests provides a good opportunity to reiterate the importance of forests and trees for the Arab region, and to induce its countries to commit to addressing environmental challenges of the region and work together towards setting common achievable objectives. Various good initiatives are already under way as several countries have programs to expand their wooded areas, such as Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the United Arab Emirates that have planned an increase of about 10,000 hectares annually. These gains are small and scattered and as such, policy- and decision-makers need to come together to agree on a common platform to strategically expand forests, trees and wooded areas in the region for the benefit of current and future generations. ESCWA will collaborate with partners to support efforts aimed at safeguarding forests and wooded areas of the region through a number of activities and events to be organized during the year. These will be aimed mostly at raising awareness on the need for a better stewardship of the environment by highlighting, among others, the role of forests in mitigating climate change, securing the supply of good-quality freshwater, providing renewable resources and preserving the fragile ecosystem of the region. The International Year of Forests was formally launched on 2 February 2011 in a special ceremony at the UN General Assembly in New York. It complemented the official program of the 9th session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), which was held 24 January-4 February 2011 and which deliberated on key issues related to forests, livelihoods and poverty eradication. All information concerning the International Year of Forests can be accessed in this website: http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/