Swedish Water House at the World Forestry Congress in Durban
Swedish Water House took an active role in the International Forest and Water Dialogue at the XIV World Forestry Congress in Durban. The event, which took place on September 8-9, 2015, gathered thousands of participants representing international organizations, countries, academia, the private sector and civil society to discuss forest-water interactions. This year’s WFC was themed “Forests and People: Investing in a Sustainable Future.”
Swedish Water House supports the dialogue, and presented its new report Water, Forests and People at the “World Forestry Café”, Tuesday afternoon.
Participants interested in tree, forest and water interactions joined the dialogue to discuss the crucial role forests play in the hydrological cycle and how climate change adds to pressures on forests and risk leading to critical transitions in ecosystems.
Key outcomes of the discussion were:
- Stakeholder dialogues are important, involving several perspectives – users of landscape in the dialogue
- Efforts need to be acknowledged, an making people proud of the good efforts and practices they do. Acknowledging this foster a good dialogue on what more can be done.
- Sharing knowledge and experiences from national or local processes and activities with other stakeholders can facilitate similar processes in other parts of the country, region or world.
- Sessions like this World Café, gives opportunities to share experiences and knowledge from other work. These kind of open sessions, as compared to closed meetings or bilateral conversation, enable people who do not yet have strong networks to get access to knowledge and experiences which help them to work more holistic and progressively.
Interview on Water and Forests with Lotta Samuelson
More information
- “Trees, what do they stand for?” – Anna Forslund’s blog from the event
- Read the Final Report from the event
- Read more about the World Forestry Congress
- Read more about the Swedish Water House cluster group on Forests and Water
- Info on Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences website (in Swedish)
Venue: XIV World Forestry Congress
Venue address: Durban, South Africa
Programme
Tuesday 8 September
10:00 Introduction
Mike Wingfield, IUFRO
Thomas Hofer, FAO
10:30 Science Presentation
Irena F. Creed, University of Western Ontario
David Ellison, Future Forest
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Speed-geeking
Rapid-fire presentations on the latest research on forests and water. Get the answers to all your science questions during a discussion period.
14:30 Practices presentation
Tony Simons, ICRAF
Ato Sileshi, Ethiopian State Minister of Agriculture
15:30 Other presentations
Roland Schulze University of KwaZulu-Natal and CSIR
Thuy Nguyen Thi Bich, REAP
Arrianne Gijsenbergh, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation in Vietnam
Sara Namirembe, ICRAF
Catherine Muthuri, ICRAF
16:00 Coffee break
16:30 World café
Presentation of new report from SIWI Swedish Water House Cluster Group on Water and Forest; Water, Forest, People” – building resilient landscapes.
Wednesday 9 September
10:00 Summary of Day 1
Thomas Hofer, FAO
10:15 Policy Presentation
Maharaj Muthoo, INBAR
10:30 Policy Sketches
Alexander Buck, IUFRO
Emma Archer van Garderen, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza, Universitá della Tuscia and University Consortium for Socioeconomic and Environmental Research (CURSA)
Kenneth MacDicken, FAO
Yemi Adeyeye, WFC secretariat Youth
11:00 Forests and Water Network Governance
Discuss the expectations on a governance network: What are the challenges? How could it influence policy?
12:30 Lunch
13:30 Review of Outcomes
Emma Archer van Garderen, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
Anders Malmer, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Hans Friedrich, INBAR
Tony Simons, ICRAF
Maharaj Muthoo, INBAR
Tatenda Mapeto, IFSA
Irena F. Creed, University of Western Ontario
15:00 Coffee break
16:00 Launch of Action Plan
Maharaj Muthoo, INBAR
17:00 Cocktail
Conclusion
Gallery
