The first meeting of task force for APEC Forestry Ministerial Meeting was convened on May 14, 2011.  

The meeting  was  chaired  by  Mr.  QU  Guilin,  Director  General,  Department  of International  Cooperation,  State  Forestry  Administration  of  China  (SFA),  and  joined by  about  30  representatives  from  Australia,  Canada,  Chile,  Japan,  Malaysia,  New Zealand,  Papua  New  Guinea,  Peru,  Singapore,  Chinese  Taipei,  Thailand,  the  United States  and  V iet  Nam.  Ambassador  Muhamad  Noor,  Executive  Director  of  APEC Secretariat attended the meeting, which aimed to establish a Task Force among APEC member  economies  in  support  of  developing  program  and  outcomes  for  the  First Forestry  Ministerial  Meeting,  and  to  initiate  the  Task  Force  by  the  first-round discussion  on  developing  program  and  proceeding  with  the  organization  of  the Ministerial Meeting.

Mr.  QU  started  the  meeting  by  appreciating  all  the  participants’  attendance  and introducing  the background of the  Forestry  Ministerial  Meeting proposed at the  18APEC  Economic  Leaders’  Meeting  in  Japan  in  2010.  In his introduction,  Mr.  QU pointed out the aspirational goal  of increasing forests by 20 million ha by 2020  in the region,  in  the  Sydney  Declaration  adopted  at  the  15   APEC  Economic Leaders’ Meeting  in  Australia  in  2007.  It was  thought  to  be  necessary to review  the progress made  in  forests  and  lessons  learned  from  the  past  years  and to figure  out  the next step to bridge the gap between what’d been achieved and the goal ahead of regional forests  coverage.  Meanwhile, common concerns and shared interests should be presented and focused on.

The  draft  Term  of  Reference  for  the  Task  Force  was  briefed  by  Ms.  LIU  Xin,  Deputy Director  of  Multilateral  Cooperation,  SFA,  including  composition,  responsibility  and the  proposed  working  mechanism  of  the  proposed  task  force. The  consensus  was reached  upon  establishing  the  task  force  with  but  not  limited  to  the  14  APEC economies  represented  at  the  meeting  as  a  core  group  to  provide  perspectives  to developing  the  program,  identifying  the  organization  and  drafting  the  outcome documents for the Forestry Ministerial Meeting. The possibility of extending the Task Force  after  the  Ministerial  Meeting  would  depend  on  the  interest  of  APEC economies.

The concept note of the Forestry Ministerial Meeting was introduced then by Ms. LU Qian, APFNet  and  Organizing  Committee  of  the  Forestry  Ministerial  Meeting, stressing the theme of the Ministerial Meeting would be stick to the forest cover goal set  forth  in  the  Sydney  Declaration,  and  insights  and  comments  from  all  the  APEC economies  would  be  encouraged  and  welcome  to  integrate  with  the  preliminary agenda  proposed  by  China.