11th ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE:
“Forestry and sustainable development”
VENUE: ELDORET, KENYA
DATE: 28-30TH SEPTEMBER,
2016
Conference concept
At the closing of the World Forestry Congress in Durban,
South Africa in September 2015, more than 4000 delegates sent a strong message
to the world about their vision for forests and forestry.
The Durban Declaration stated three critical points why forests are an
important consideration for achieving sustainable development by Year 2030:
- Forests are more than trees and are fundamental for food security and improved livelihoods. The forests of the future will increase the resilience of communities by providing food, wood energy, shelter, fodder and fibre; generating income and employment to allow communities and societies to prosper; harbouring biodiversity; and supporting sustainable agriculture and human wellbeing by stabilizing soils and climate and regulating water flows.
- Integrated approaches to land use provide a way forward for improving policies and practices to: address the drivers of deforestation; address conflicts over land use; capitalize on the full range of economic, social and environmental benefits from integrating forests with agriculture; and maintain multiple forest services in the landscape context.
- Forests are an essential solution to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Sustainably managed forests will increase the resilience of ecosystems and societies and optimize the role of forests and trees in absorbing and storing carbon while also providing other environmental services.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was
tasked to deliver another message on behalf of WFC participants to the climate
change talks that followed later that year. The highlights of that message were
that the threat of climate change should be urgently addressed for which it was
necessary:
- To continue making information available to
policy makers for decision making and help practitioners to achieve mitigation
and adaptation goals,
- Increase understanding of the challenges and
opportunities available in addressing climate change in the context of
achieving sustainable development goals.
It was also in September 2015 that the UN
General Assembly agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals for steering global
development agenda until 2030.
The Forestry Society of Kenya seeks to
interrogate all Sustainable Goals that have a bearing on forestry and in
particular, pay attention to Goal No. 15 which is specific to supporting life
on earth and the role forests will be expected to play. A two-day conference has
been organized during which scientific
and other presentations will be made to debate on the actions to be taken by
Kenya in order to domesticates the goals, the most urgent of which have action
dates falling due as soon as 2020! The completion schedule confirms there is no
time to lose. FSK therefore has reasons to create wide awareness about the
goals by bringing together different actors, to deliberate on what is being
done to address the specific actions outlined in Goal 15 and what needs to be
done to meet the deadlines and at the same time ensure sustainability of the
environment and development.
THEME:
Contribution of Forestry towards
achieving the Sustainable Development Goal for steering global development
agenda
SUB–THEMES
1.
Equitable access to forest
ecosystem products and services!! Is it a dilemma?
2.
Sustainable management and
exploitation of forests: Focus on plantations.
3.
Conservation of forest
biodiversity and control of invasive species
4.
Financing and legislation on
management of forest.
