ITTO and partners join forces at the Forest Pavilion during COP 29

Baku, Azerbaijan, 19 November 2024: The third day of COP 29 saw the opening of the inaugural Forest Pavilion, a joint effort of members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forest and other partners providing an accessible platform within the climate change negotiations to inform decision-makers on the centrality of forest as nature-based solutions to climate regulation, mitigation and adaptation.

Opening remarks were given by high-ranking officials from several organizations.

In her opening remarks, Ms Conje, Director for Forest Management, expressed ITTO’s gratitude to the organizers and partners of the pavilion and emphasized that despite the recognition of the centrality of forest in fighting climate change, the share of climate financing channeled to forestry was only around 4% of the total climate financing from 2009−2019, according to SOFO 2022 report.  With COP 29 being the “financing COP”, Ms Conje along with other speakers underscored that it is critical that more investment and financing from all sources flow into forests and forestry.

Ms Conje particularly welcomed the participation of other sectors outside the forest community to the pavilion. “The solutions to this climate crisis are dependent on us working together”, she said.

The pavilion will host a series of daily programmes under relevant themes. ITTO along with FAO and the Government of Japan will host the Sustainable forest-based bioeconomy for climate change mitigation and adaptation day on 20 November.