World Forest Week 2026 Side Event: Primary forests as a foundation for food, resilience and prosperity
Organized by FAO, GEF, IUCN and the UNFF Secretariat, this side event looks at the role of primary forests in food security, climate resilience and the livelihoods of the Indigenous Peoples and local communities who care for them. Speakers from key forest regions share their perspectives, followed by a discussion of Indigenous leadership and partnerships under the CPF Joint Initiative on Primary Forests.
Primary forests regulate water, keep soils fertile and support pollination, underpinning the farming systems and livelihoods of millions of people. Once lost, they do not recover on any timescale that matters for policy. This side event at the 28th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO 28) looks at what it takes to keep them standing, drawing on experience from the tropical forest regions covered by the GEF Critical Forest Biomes Integrated Programme.
Organized by FAO with GEF Secretariat, IUCN, and the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat (UNFFS), the event brings together government, Indigenous and youth voices to discuss how countries and communities are protecting primary forests from across the biomes.
The event also marks the launch of the SEAP Forests Knowledge Hub, a regional platform that brings together data, country information and resources on primary forests in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.