The ninth session of the United Nations Forum on Forest is being held from 24 January-4 February in New York City. The overall theme for the UNFF 9 is "forests for people, livelihoods and poverty eradication". The following sub-themes will be discussed during the meetings: community-based forest management; social development and indigenous and other local and forest dependant communities; social and cultural aspects. Other major issues in the agenda include official launching of the International Year of Forests, discussion of the assessment of progress made on the implementation of the non-legally binding instrument on all types of forest and towards the achievement of the four global objectives on forests, as well as discussions on regional and sub-regional inputs and enhancing cooperation.

The meeting will host a wide array of participants, including Member States, UN agencies and Funds, Inter-governmental Organizations, other international and regional entities.

All the information on the event, as well as the links to official documents can be found on the website: http://www.un.org/esa/forests/session.html