It is a wrap!
Thank you for participating in the 20th Commonwealth Forestry Conference.
By the Numbers:
- 50 Countries represented from 17 times zones
- More than 420 delegates (34% students)
- 2.5 days – all online (6 Months – Videos on demand for registered participants)
- 10 Keynote Speakers featured, one plenary for Conference recommendations
- 2 Special Sessions with 11 invited speakers
- 180 Presenters (oral and posters)
- 3 Minute Talk Challenge for students
This Conference’s carbon footprint
The lack of conference travel prevented greenhouse gas emissions that would have been emitted by one passenger vehicle driving the distance of 4.5 times to the Moon and back (or 3.5 million kilometers).
Final post-conference announcements:
Check out the winners of the 3-Minute Talk Challenge
Take Our Three-Minute Survey
Tell us what you think about CFC 2021. We will carefully compile the answers and relay the information to 2025 conference organizers.
Take The Survey Here.
On-Demand Videos, Book of Abstracts, Closing Speech, & Communique Available
We are pleased to announce that all recordings from the 20th Commonwealth Forestry Conference are now posted in the virtual platform. Please login here and watch at your convenience the sessions you missed in real time, or why not repeat those you’ve already experienced. Videos will be available until January 31, 2022.
The 20th Commonwealth Forestry Conference Communique, Closing Keynote Speech and Proceedings (book of abstracts) are now finalized and posted online here.
Certificates of participation/presentation are available upon request: cfc.2021@ubc.ca
Congratulations to All Our Winners
3-Minute Talk Challenge
We heard 13 excellent talks in the 3 Minute Talk Challenge. The talks were all of such high quality that the judges were hard-pressed to select the best. In the end, the committee decided on the following outstanding presentations:
1st prize | Debbie Pierce (Canada), The impact of land ownership and deforestation in the Colombian Amazon on the livelihoods of rural women.
Runner-up Prizes | There was a tie for second place, and the winners are:
- Magdalena Jovanovic (Serbia), Conservation of Wild Pear (Pyrus pyraster (L.) Burgsd.) in Protected Area “Kosutnjak Forest” and
- Alida O’Connor (Canada), Operationalizing landscape approaches in Ghana and Zambia.
Light Up CFC 2021 – Gamification
Thank you to all who got excited with our place-hunting game during the Conference. We had 6 delegates paying close attention to the riddles and the winner is Julieta Lavin who found (or virtually visited) the most locations among the game players. The place hunt is now closed, but our music collections will remain on YouTube or Spotify channels, feel free to search and enjoy:
- Light Up CFC 2021 – Places – Connect – People
- Light Up CFC 2021 – FIRE
- Light Up CFC 2021 – CLIMATE
- Light Up CFC 2021 – Forest
If you would like to receive the full list of national parks and other places of interest around the world that were featured in our game, please send us a note: cfc.2021@ubc.ca
The content below is just for general information (archive).
Why join this conference?
The forest sector is emerging globally as a leader in sustainability, diversification, and innovation. Forests and forestry are supporting countries to achieve global development, contribute incrementally to the climate crisis agendas and advance the broader goals of a cleaner, low-carbon future.
The last Commonwealth Forestry Conference (held in Dehradun, India in 2017) recognized that the world’s forest cover continues to decrease as forest land is converted to agriculture and other uses. Concerted efforts by governments, communities, and NGOs have slowed down the rate of net global deforestation by over 50% in the past 25 years. However, the growing world population and ever-increasing societal demands put enormous pressure on scarce forest resources, particularly in the tropics and developing countries, which continue to experience a decline of forests and depletion of the goods and services that they used to offer.
This conference will generate discussion, from research, governance, and sustainability viewpoints, on the future of the forest sector, while learning from the past. We expect this conference to engage members of the Commonwealth as well as the general world forest community, regardless of their professional affiliation – working for governments, the industry, or other civil and environmental organizations. Such engagement is essential as integrating and coordinating national policies for natural resources management takes collective action across the institutions and sectors.
Vision
- We strive for a global forest sector that champions sustainability, diversification, equity, and innovation.
- We promote collaborations across Commonwealth countries at various levels from policy to on-the-ground actions.
- We encourage the showcasing of existing projects while focusing on cross-country collaboration that makes a difference.
- We demonstrate how and when having good national policies makes a difference, yet positive changes can occur even when national policies leave much to be desired.
The conference will bring together practitioners and researchers from governments across the globe, as well as audiences from the forest industry, scholarly, and indigenous communities. The Conference welcomes participants from both member and non-member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Timeline
The Conference will include 3 days of online sessions. We are planning for keynote and scientific presentations, as well as a plenary/round table. Keynote presentations will feature both research-based talks featuring prominent scientists, and more pragmatic, real-world presentations featuring prominent practitioners or policymakers from industry, government, civil society, and indigenous communities.
- Abstract submissions open on February 12, 2021 till May 15, 2021
- Authors will be notified of abstract acceptance in early June, 2021
- Registration opens April 2, 2021
- Complete program posted online: July 15, 2021
- Poster submission deadline: August 6, 2021
- Registration closes August 13, 2021
- Unique links for registered delegates and presenters to login: by August 13, 2021
- August 16, 2021: Welcome to the 10th CFC! 🙂
Conference Topics
| New Markets | Bioeconomy Ecosystem services |
| Education and Careers | Collaboration New technologies |
| Communication | Communicating forestry to outside audiences Communicating within CFA |
| Climate change | Forest fires Carbon sequestration Insect outbreaks Seed transfer Communities |
| Technology and Innovation | Vision for modern forest management |
| Conservation versus Consumption | Indigenous and community forestry (policies, products) Landscape-level approaches Conservation valuation National park management Wildlife management Old-growth management |
| Urban Forests | Benefits Valuation Community engagement |
| NEW: IUFRO Divisions 6 and 9 | Social aspects, forest policy and economics |
Join our mailing list for Conference updates – send us a note at cfc.2021@ubc.ca with your name, organization, and email address.