In 2015, countries made a bold and ambitious commitment when adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Target 15.2 of SDG 15 on Life on Land calls for halting deforestation by 2020, among others. In addition, the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 (UNSPF) adopted in 2017 by the UN General Assembly calls for reversing the loss of forest cover and increasing forest area by 3 percent worldwide by 2030 (Global Forest Goal 1, Target 1.1).

This international conference, organized by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, will bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss the challenges of halting and reversing deforestation and to jointly explore ways to accelerate progress towards achieving in particular the SDG Target 15.2 and Target 1.1 of the UNSPF.

The main objective of the conference is to provide substantive input, through UNFF13, to the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), the United Nations central platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs. In 2018 the HLPF will review, among others, SDG 15, and UNFF13 will focus on a policy dialogue that takes into account this theme of the HLPF and discuss actions to be undertaken globally and nationally to help achieve the SDG and UNSPF targets of halting deforestation and increasing forest cover.

More specifically, the conference will:

• Review current key drivers of deforestation and ways they are being addressed.
• Identify key policy challenges to achieving the SDG and Global Forest Goal targets of halting deforestation and increasing forest cover.
• Help achieve a better understanding of the role and contributions of sectors impacting on forests in promoting forest smart activities to halt and expand forest areas, and identify lessons learned from existing initiatives, including practical examples on the ground.
• Discuss opportunities to accelerate reforestation, afforestation and forest landscape restoration.
• Recommend ways forward, including key policy measures and actions by countries and the international community.
• Provide recommendations to UNFF13 and the HLPF on further policy development, application and use of innovative technology, private-public partnerships and governance approaches needed to upscale progress on the targets.