As one of the events of The Second Asia-Pacific Forestry Week, the Second Forestry College Deans Meeting in the Asia-Pacific Region was convened at 11 November. Sponsored by APFNet, with Beijing Forestry Beijing Forestry University, FAO, University of British Columbia, University of Melbourne, Universities Putra Malaysia, and TNC as co-sponsors, the Meeting brought about 39 participants from 14 Asia-Pacific universities, 6 international organizations crossing the Asia-Pacific region.

Following up the activities proposed in the first Meeting held in July 21-23, 2010, The Second Forestry College Deans Meeting in the Asia-Pacific Region provides an opportunity for the Deans of forestry colleges and universities to exchange views and share experiences on forestry education towards sustainable forest management with a mix of approaches of keynote presentations, case studies and group discussion. Mr. Lu De, Deputy Director General of APFNet Secretariat, Prof. Wu Bin, chancellor of Beijing Forestry University, Mr. Patrick Durst, FAO Senior Forestry Officer from FAO Regional Office for Asia& Pacific and Dr. John Innes, Dean from University of British Colombia delivered the opening speeches on behalf of the sponsors. Presentations made by Mr. Eduardo Rojas-Briales, Assistant Director General of FAO, Dr. John Innes from UBC, Dr. Awang Noor Ghandi from Putra University of Malaysia, and Dr. Hosny El Lakany, chair of IPFE, provide a comprehensive picture of Asia-Pacific forestry education and the outlook of the possible development of forestry education in the context of changing world.

To convey a better understanding of existing opportunities and challenges, speakers from 8 different economies respectively identified the principle issues which keep forestry education from reaching next level and further introduce best experiences and frontier approaches based on their observation, and analysis, including Beijing Forestry University, University of Melbourne, Vietnam Forestry University, University of the Philippines Los Baños, University of British Columbia, University Putra Malaysia. The operation approaches and modalities of Mechanism and the outline of the future development of the Mechanism were also discussed at the meeting, which will ensure the Mechanism run in an effective and productive way. Contributing to the active participation and commendable suggestions from all the participants, several consensuses have been reached as the membership and criteria of the Mechanism, the composition of the Steering Committee, as well as coordination among members.

By the end of the meeting, the participants also concluded that it is necessary to establish corporation in the field of forestry education, which would pave the way for long-term improvement within the region.