The 8th meeting of the Asia Forest Partnership (AFP) & AFP Dialogue was held in Bali, Indonesia from May 27 to May 29, 2009. More than 275 participants from government agencies in Japan, Switzerland, Indonesia etc., International and Regional Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations attended the meeting. The Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet) was invited to attend this important dialogue on forest.

The theme of this dialogue was “REDD and combating illegal logging”. Extensive and in-depth discussions were carried out on topics covering “Actions to tackle illegal logging and associated trade: implications for REDD”、 “REDD and forest governance” 、“Community: REDD, illegal logging and forest-dependent communities” and “Economic and international implications”.

During the 8th Meeting of AFP, Dr. Wang Xuehong from the APFNet Secretariat introduced the missions, objectives, especially work underway and future work plans of APFNet, and answered questions raised by participants. The presentation drew great attention among the 8th AFP Dialogue participants. In the conference margin, representatives of the APFNet held discussions with FAO and TNC respectively on upcoming cooperative activities between the two parties. APFNet representatives also held an informal discussion with AFP coordinator on future cooperation between the APFNet and APF.