APFNet Promo Event was convened at Beijing National Convention Center on November 7, 2011. The event was presided by Mr. Qu Guilin, Executive Director of Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet), about 70 people from the governmental or non-governmental organizations, research institutions, international organizations, forestry-related private sectors as well as individuals who are interested in APFNet initiatives and willing to cooperate with APFNet in contributing to sustainable forest management in Asia and the Pacific attended the event. During the event, APFNet representative made a brief introduction of its origin and mission, the main activities being conducted as well as prospect for future development. In addition, the representatives of the executing agencies of the projects sponsored by APFNet, including the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Phu Tho Sub-department of Forestry of Vietnam, Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal (FECOFUN), Southwest Forestry University, Beijing Forestry University shared their experiences and achievements in the cooperation with APFNet.

Mr. Jeremy Broadhead, who was in charge of the FAO project titled "Making forestry work for the poor: Adapting forest policies to poverty alleviation strategies in Asia and the Pacific", gave a brief summary of the project findings in community forestry, commercial/industrial forestry, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Carbon Payments. He pointed out that resource exploitation in the name of development and lack of necessary technology often increased poverty and conflict in rural areas. He also emphasized that regional PES was still mostly on a pilot scale and was slow to take off due to the high transaction costs, the scepticism over benefits of REDD+ at local level and the same problems associated with community forestry.

The APFNet-Nepal project titled "Demonstration of Sustainable Forest Management with Community Participation" has made remarkable progress since its inception in October 2010. The project executing agency，Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal (FECOFUN), launched several consultation workshops at the central and regional level to listen to the community voice on their expectation for the project and their preference for potential forestry enterprises that would ultimately benefit the poor and marginalized. On the basis of which, they formulated national level entry point and implementation strategy. After that, a feasibility study of the establishment of community-based forestry enterprises was conducted. It was concluded that the establishment of enterprise was a long-term process in terms of sustainability, during this process, the coordination and collaboration with government and other multi-stakeholders was of great stake, and more efforts should be exerted into this direction in pursuit of internal and external support to ensure the sustainable forest management.

Similarly, the APFNet-funded project titled "Demonstration of capacity building of forest restoration and sustainable forest management in Vietnam", launched various project activities since the signing of the project agreement in September 2010. Technical guidelines on forest resource inventory (FRI) and guidelines on silviculture of native tree species& NTFP were developed, then forest resource inventory, rapid survey of native valuable timber species and NTFP types as well as species and socio-economic and forestry development status in two project’s communes were conducted. After that, one pilot model of planting NTFP species in forests and one pilot model of forest restoration by improvement thinning and enrichment planting by high value timber species were established, relevant village regulations and develop plan on forest management & benefit sharing as well as forestry development funds were develpoed for the project’s communes.

Besides that, Mr. John Innes, Dean of Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, introduced the climate change occurring in the Asia Pacific region, the roles of forest ecosystems in mitigating climate change, the climate change threatens that face Asia Pacific forest ecosystems. After that he outlined the project objectives, research plan and latest progress in the development of model Climate BC, Climate AP and ecological models and their application in the Asia-Pacific region. Finally the Beijing Forestry University and the Southwest Forestry College presented the main outputs and the lessons learned from the scholarship program and thematic training programme sponsored by APFNet.

The event displayed APFNet’s activities and achievements since its establishment, aroused the awareness of APFNet among a wider audience, and strengthened its influence in the Asia-Pacific Region.