he Eight Session of United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF8) was held at the UN headquarters in New York from April 20 to May 1, 2009. Over 600 participants from UN member states, International and Regional Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations attended the session. Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet) was invited to attend this important forum on forest.

The theme of UNFF8 was “forest in a changing environment”. Extensive and in-depth discussions were carried out on topics of “forest and climate change” and “means of implementation for sustainable forest management”, especially on international forest financing mechanism. After ten days negotiation, representatives adopted the resolution of forest in a changing environment and decided to revisit the agenda item on means of implementation at UNFF9.

On the agenda item of regional and sub-regional input during the plenary session, Dr. WANG Xuehong, representative of APFNet introduced the missions, objectives, recent activities and follow-up work plan of APFNet and drew great attention among UNFF8 participants. In the conference margin, representatives of APFNet held an informal discussion with delegates of USA and Australia on future development issues of APFNet, including the development of APFNet members, the functions and role of APFNet secretariat and the relationship of APFNet to APEC.