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FOREST CONSERVATION ANNOUNCEMENT

Web Conference: Sources of Finance for Sustainable Forest Management

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Portal

http://forests.org/links/ -- Forest Conservation Links

12/02/01

FUND RAISING APPEAL AND NEW FOREST CONSERVATION ANNOUNCEMENT SERVICE -

Announcement of FAO Sponsored Internet Conference on Sources of

Finance for Sustainable Forest Management Attached Below

Forests.org's efforts continue to grow and innovate, as do financial

requirements for maintaining this free service. Last week we launched

our annual 2001 end of year fund raising drive. The response has been

positive, yet we are still some distance from the goal of securing

funding to cover our most basic needs over the coming year.

Continuation of the largest and most effective forest conservation

network on the Internet depends upon YOU making an individual donation

on our secure web site at http://forests.org/donate/, or contacting us

for our address to send a check. We also appreciate suggestions for

grants, consultancies and other financing.

Millions of users depend upon this service for their forest

conservation news and information needs. Our recent surveys indicate

high levels of satisfaction - and provide great user feedback on how

to improve the service, that we intend to implement this year. It is

now time for those that benefit from these services - including

subscribers, organizations, donors and other forest conservationists -

to step up and help financially support these efforts to whatever

degree possible.

In a new effort to diversify our funding base, we are excited to

announce our new "FOREST CONSERVATION ANNOUNCMENT" service.

Forests.org will occasionally (less than one or two times a month) be

sending out sponsored announcements for events and services of

interest to our several thousand member email list. These will not be

for commercial services, and will be carefully screened to ensure

applicability to forest conservation and sustainability.

The first such announcement is attached below - an announcement by FAO

on behalf of the Collaborative Partnership on Forest (CPF) of a web

conference on Sustainable forest Management. The Internet conference

at http://www.financingsfm.net is compiling sources of financing and

discussing several topics; include carbon storage, industrial wood,

non-wood forest products, forest services, bio-prospecting and

conservation easements. This should be of interest to many of our

list members (Forests.org included ;-).

Let us know should your organization wish to send out a similar

sponsored announcement. If you have not yet done so, please get a

donation in at http://forests.org/donate/ as soon as possible.

g.b.

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ANNOUNCEMENT STARTS HERE:

Dear Colleague,

Please find below a call for participation in an Internet Conference

on Sources of Financing for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM),

sponsored by the FAO on behalf of the Collaborative Partnership on

Forest (CPF).

As a member of the Forests.org mailing list you will be particularly

interested in this virtual meeting and we value the contribution that

you may be able to make. I am sure that you are already well aware of

the importance of sustainable forest management and the need for

society to find viable financial and environmental modus operandi to

make it happen. The conference is particularly concerned with

identifying sources of finance that are available to achieve this end.

The results will be compiled into a sourcebook and made openly

available in due course.

The web site (http://www.financingsfm.net) is now open for

registration (28th Nov) and the first topic sessions commence on

Monday 3rd December. The discussion on each specialist topic will be

lead by a topic leader. Please refer to the web site for details of

the timing and content of the discussion fora and for details of how

to register.

If you have any other colleagues who may be interested in

participating they are very welcome to do so as the conference is open

to all interested parties. Please freely distribute this message to

others who may be interested.

If you have any questions or need assistance in registering please let

me know.

Yours sincerely

Tim Richards

(Apologies if you have already received a copy of the message from a

difference source)

Conference Organiser

4 Old Tarnwell

Stanton Drew

Somerset BS18 4EA

UK

Email : mappamundi@btopenworld.com

Tel: +44 (0) 1275 331223

************* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION *************

International INTERNET Conference on

FINANCING SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT

Date: 3 - 14 December 2001

Venue: Your Internet Browser - http://www.financingsfm.net

Sponsors: UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, on behalf of the

Collaborative Partnership on Forests

Over the last six years there has been an ongoing intergovernmental

dialogue on national and collective actions that can be adopted

towards the goal of sustainable forest management (SFM). These

discussions have taken place in the fora of the Intergovernmental

Panel on Forests (IPF), the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF)

and the ongoing UN Forum on Forests (UNFF).

The benefits, indeed the necessity, of sustainable forest management

are widely recognised. However, one of the most prominent pending

questions is - how can sustainable forest management be financed by

society? To help address this question and to start filling the

information gap on sources of finance, the Collaborative Partnership

on Forests (CPF), in its support role to the UNFF, is compiling a

source book on finance sources for SFM. As part of this activity, and

as a member of the CPF, FAO is hosting an Internet Conference to

discuss the issue of financing SFM and to collect and collate

information on finance sources - how they can be accessed and how they

are utilised. The objective is to collate the information gathered

into a source book that will be made openly available to help fill the

"information gap" and to stimulate further discussion and action.

The conference works by registering on email list servers that deal

with each discussion topic. You have the option to receive all

messages as they are contributed or daily digests of either all

messages or subject heading only. Furthermore, there are full search

facilities for each topic via the web site, so you can opt for the

level of participation you wish to engage in.

PROGRAMME

The conference will be undertaken using electronic media and will

address specific topics relating to financing sustainable forest

management, with three parallel sessions each week. You can register

for as many or as few topics as you wish. Topic leaders will lead the

discussion on finance issues

relating to the following topics:

WEEK 1: 3rd - 7th December 2001

ú Industrial wood

ú Carbon storage

ú Non-wood forest products

WEEK 2: 10th - 14th December 2001

ú Forest services

ú Bio-prospecting

ú Conservation easements

In addition to the discussion forum an on-line database of finance

sources shall be available for you to browse and make contributions

to.

LOCATION

The conference is taking place is cyberspace - on your desktop. Point

your browser at http://www.financingsfm.net to participate.

REGISTRATION

You can register to participate in the conference on the web site from

28th November 2001. The topic managed conference will commence on 3rd

December and last for two weeks.

RESULTS

The results of the conference and the database of forest finance

sources will be made available to all in due course in 2002. All

participants will be notified of the results which will be posted on

the FAO web site.

ORGANISATION

The conference is being facilitated by the FAO Forestry Department on

behalf of the CPF.

We look forward to conversing with you at the conference.

Tim Richards

Conference Organiser

Email: mappamundi@btopenworld.com

Web: http://www.financingsfm.net

Tel: +44 1275 331153

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For additional forest conservation news & information please see the

Forest Conservation Portal at URL= http://forests.org/

Networked by Forests.org, Inc., gbarry@forests.org