The 8th IUCN Asia Regional Conservation Forum was held from 3-5 September in Bangkok, Thailand, bringing more than 600 participants from across the region, with the theme of ‘Reimagining Conservation in Asia: A Nature Positive Future,’ to assess conservation progress, revisit IUCN priority goals, and propose strategic directions to effectively address environmental and biodiversity challenges over the next 20 years.

MoU renewed between APFNet and IUCN

During the forum, APFNet and IUCN renewed an MoU for another five years, marking the continuation of their partnership in shared priorities of

• addressing forest loss and degradation, including by promoting sustainable forest management;
• accelerating forest landscape restoration (FLR) as a prime example of Nature-based Solutions (NbS);
• enhancing forest ecosystems and their services for the benefit of people in the context of climate change; and
• improving forest governance and forest policy development and implementation processes.

As mentioned by both sides, a long-time partnership between the two organizations had started in the early 2010s regarding personnel exchanges, event and project cooperation, and both would expect more forest-based joint actions and fruitful collaboration that bring impacts and changes to the region.

At the side event “Strengthening landscape approaches in Asia: Restoring and conserving ecosystems, reducing risks, and empowering communities”, APFNet was invited together with AFoCO, RECOFTC, and Coorg Wildlife Society, to showcase the contributions of landscape approaches, including FLR, to addressing environmental and social challenges in Asia. 

Panellists shared best practices, lessons learned, and challenges from implementing landscape projects under regional initiatives like Regional Model Forest Network-Asia (RMFN), opportunities for scaling up successful landscape models, and the importance of strengthening partnerships and networks for more effective collaboration and impact at the regional level. 

APFNet has made a great effort to promote sustainable forest management (SFM) in Asia through demonstration projects, and the Lin’an Model Forest project, on which APFNet collaborated with RMFN from 2017-2021, was shared as a good example of combining SFM and livelihood improvement. The project aimed to demonstrate forest ecosystem restoration in Lin’an and Qingyang in Southern China, known for planting and processing bamboo shoots and under-forest medicine herbs, respectively. With the project support, participating communities in Linan and Qingyang introduced their leading practices and models to each other through training and field visits. Highly motivated by the mutual learning and what they saw in the fields, farmers introduced new practices and models with enthusiasm for forest restoration and voluntarily involved in forest management to ensure good income from bamboo shoots and herb harvesting and produce.

Dr Liu Wenzhe (M), APFNet Project manager, sharing APFNet project experience

APFNet booth attracted visitors 

APFNet met many new and old friends, partners and individuals at the booth exhibition, along with 20 + other exhibitors. Visitors were interested in APFNet’s activities, projects, scholarship and research programmes, and publication materials and brochures were handed out. To expand the network, upscale projects and impacts in the region, APFNet displayed an overall introduction of the organization, implementation tools and explored chances for further cooperation.