CPF

 

Key messages from the Forest Pavilion

Message from the Co-Chairs | Belém, 21 November 2025

Over the two weeks of the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), held in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025, partners and representatives of over 28 Parties/Member States, and 144 organizations and stakeholders organized events at the Forest Pavilion. They explored key forest-related themes linked to the COP30 negotiations and showcased concrete forest-based climate action, implementation efforts and partnerships at national, regional and international levels, bringing together governments, organizations, scientific and research communities, the private sector, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and women and youth, among others.

A central hub for solutions and collaboration

As the first pavilion at a session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC dedicated to all types of forests, the COP30 Forest Pavilion functioned as a central hub for solutions, dialogue and collaboration, going far beyond its role as an event space. It served as a dynamic meeting point for partners and stakeholders, hosting numerous bilateral meetings, including for the signing of Memorandums of Understanding between Parties/Member States, such as those between Brazil and Canada on integrated fire management and between Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on environment and sustainable development.

High-level engagement

Ministers and other high-level officials from Parties/Member States, including Armenia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Germany, Japan, Kenya, the Republic of the Congo and the United Kingdom, joined and addressed the Forest Pavilion. At the Grand Opening, Minister Marina Silva of Brazil underscored the critical importance of the Forest Pavilion, stressing that there is no credible climate pathway without conserving and sustainably managing forests across all biomes, and highlighting the need to harness new financing opportunities, particularly the Tropical Forest Forever Facility. Ambassador Emmanuel Kamarianakis of Canada emphasized the importance of collaboration in addressing global challenges such as wildfires, noting that while forest-related challenges are urgent, they are not insurmountable.

Leaders of partner organizations, including the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, the Forest Stewardship Council, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, and the Building and Wood Workers’ International also participated in the Grand Opening, and underlined the Forest Pavilion’s role in placing forests at the center of the global political agenda, mobilizing stronger political commitment and finance, showcasing forest-based climate solutions, and providing a dynamic space for diverse voices and partnerships.

Programme themes

During the two-week period, 53 individual thematic events were reflected in the Forest Pavilion programme, structured around the following daily themes:

  • Regional Perspectives: Amazon Basin; Congo Basin; Borneo-Mekong Basin; Temperate and Boreal Forests; Dryland Forests
  • Forests at the heart of our shared future: Sustainable Forest Management; Forests and Bioeconomy; Forest Finance and Means of Implementation; Forest Governance and Law; Forests in NDCs and Global Development Agendas
  • Social and Inclusive Themes: Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ Leadership; Forests and Youth; Forests, Gender, and Social Equity; Forests and Well-being
  • Science, Technology, and Innovation: Climate-Forest Interactions; Wildfire Management; Science-Industry Partnerships; Forest Data and Monitoring
  • Partnerships and Multi-Stakeholder Action: Collaborative Partnership on Forests; Private Sector, Civil Society and Academia; Regional and International Initiatives

Shared Commitments and Vision

Through these thematic sessions, Forest Pavilion partners emphasized that forests are fundamental to achieving a net-zero, climate-resilient and equitable future for all. They reaffirmed commitments to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, scale up forest restoration, and enhance the sustainable use and conservation of all types of forests.

They recognized the interconnected role of forests in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and underscore that progress towards the Global Forest Goals can catalyze solutions to major global challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, water insecurity and poverty.

In this context, Forest Pavilion partners called for strengthened, urgent and coordinated action in the following areas to realize the full potential of forests for climate, people and the planet:

 

Key action areas

Scale a nature-positive circular forest bioeconomy

Mobilize innovative, nature-positive circular bioeconomy solutions- underpinned by robust Natural Capital Accounting, enabling policy and finance frameworks, and cross-sector, cross-regional collaboration- to rapidly grow forest-based and forest–agriculture value chains that cut emissions, reverse forest loss, and deliver social, economic, and environmental co-benefits in line with 2030 climate, biodiversity, SDG and NDC targets.

Centre Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women and youth in forest action

Uphold IPLCs’ land rights and traditional knowledge, ensure their full and informed participation in all decisions and funding mechanisms, direct long-term climate and forest finance to Indigenous- and community-led initiatives, and forge intergenerational partnerships so that community engagement, social protection, and shared value become the foundation of forest-sector business models and restoration efforts.

Unlock large-scale, performance-based forest and climate finance

Build coherent, country-led performance-based systems that embed REDD+, environmental fiscal transfers, Forest-Linked Loans and the Tropical Forests Forever Facility into national policies; operationalize TFFF’s four pillars and Country Access Support Platform; and deepen regional cooperation and blended-finance partnerships so public-private investment flows equitably to IPLCs, smallholders and community-based carbon initiatives.

Harness science, monitoring, and digital innovation for accountable forest solutions

Strengthen science-driven sustainable forest management and climate-resilient practices across tropical, temperate, and boreal forests by deploying robust SFM criteria and indicators, scaling low-cost tools such as bioacoustic monitoring, and strategically using digital and AI technologies under strong governance and ethical safeguards to link local knowledge with data-driven decision-making and turn initiatives like the Forest Hack into tangible, locally grounded results.

Enhance integrated, rights-based forest governance and transboundary collaboration

Modernize forest laws and institutions through judicial and legal reforms and adaptable tools such as the Model Forest Act; integrate forest–water functions and equity-centered investments into NAPs and climate finance; and scale basin-wide and regional initiatives- from the Congo Assessment Report and Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program to temperate and boreal cooperation- so countries jointly conserve and restore forests, strengthen livelihoods, and translate global commitments into effective national and landscape-level action.

Advance integrated fire governance for resilient landscapes

Strengthen integrated fire governance by embedding traditional fire knowledge in global and national policies, using platforms such as the Global Fire Management Hub to foster intercultural dialogue and harmonize landscape fire governance, and building coherent policy frameworks that link environment, climate, and disaster risk agendas to achieve fire-resilient forest landscapes.

The Forest Pavilion has served as a “home” for forests at COP30, and efforts will continue to further strengthen and enhance its visibility and presence at COP31.