Details about the conference

The conference opens with welcoming remarks from a high-level official of the Government of Norway, followed by a musical performance.

The first morning of the conference continues two high-level plenary sessions that will include presentations on the latest science about the importance of forests to climate and development goals, and a panel discussion on the state of play on progress toward targets to end deforestation.

Four rounds of four parallel sessions follow in the afternoon of the first day and the morning of the second day, with interwoven “streams” of discussion loosely organized around the conference themes of

(A) the role of forests in meeting Paris Agreement goals

(B) progress toward meeting no-deforestation commodity supply chain commitments

(C) reducing illegal logging, corruption, and other forest-related crimes

(D) recognizing indigenous rights and reducing violence against environmental defenders.

The first round of parallel sessions focuses on establishing the state of play surrounding the issue, while subsequent rounds focus on new tools and promising approaches for addressing identified challenges and opportunities.

Four of the parallel sessions will be designed as fishbowl discussions, with a central table of panellists debating an issue with the audience surrounding them in an outer circle.

While no country-specific sessions are proposed, most (but not all) of the parallel sessions are designed to highlight the experience of one or a few countries or sub-national jurisdictions.

The 90-minute lunch break on each day is designed to accommodate structured networking and smaller meetings.  

Electronic voting and videos will be spliced into the opening and/or closing plenary sessions, and also selectively in the parallel sessions.

The program concludes with a final plenary session featuring forward-looking perspectives from high-level speakers and closing remarks.