On 29 March 2011, Mr. Jack Hurd, Director of the Asia-Pacific Forest Program, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), visited the APFNet Secretariat. Building on the extensive cooperation and a close partnership in the past two years especially through the RAFT program, the two sides explored possible fields of cooperation in 2011. 

Progress was updated on the preparation of a training workshop on Pilot Teaching Resource Module on Conflict Management for Sustainable Forest Management in Asia-Pacific region, as a follow-up of the 1st Asia-Pacific Forestry College Deans’ Meeting held in 2010. Aiming to enhance the capacity of regional forestry colleges, the workshop will provide a good opportunity for regional forestry faculty to probe into innovative teaching modules. Mr. Lu De, Deputy Director-General of the APFNet Secretariat, stressed the importance of the workshop and suggested extending the outcome of the workshop before possibly evolving it into a thematic activity among regional forestry colleges. 

The two sides mentioned the 1st APEC Forestry Ministerial Meeting to be held in September in Beijing, which is expected to contribute to achieving the aspirational goal of increasing forest area in APEC region by 20 million ha by 2020. APFNet will be a key organizer in providing logistical arrangements and relevant support for the Meeting to ensure the success of the event. It was hoped that TNC, with its expertise in the forest sector and experience gained in the region, could provide input in developing the meeting agenda and outcomes. 

According to Mr. Lu’s introduction, APFNet will also serve as the local organizer of the 24th Session of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) and the 2nd Asia-Pacific Forest Week (APFW) in Beijing in November, 2011, As a regional entity, several partner events are also in plan under APFNet during the forestry week, i.e. the 2nd Asia-Pacific Forestry College Deans Meeting, a forestry business forum and a forestry student forum, on which Mr. Lu invited TNC to collaborate. This intrigued Mr. Hurd a great interest to shape concrete cooperation in further communications. 

At last, Mr. Lu expressed APFNet’s willingness in continuing synergy with TNC after the RAFT program ending up in its 1stphase in late 2011, which also resonated with Mr. Hurd.