The World Agroforestry Centre is holding two important events on the sidelines to the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which will take place in PyeongChang, Republic of Korea from 6 to 17 October 2014.

Tree Diversity Day will be held for the second time on 10 October at the Rio Conventions Pavilion with a full day of presentations and discussions around the theme: diversity for landscape restoration. Topics to be discussed include:

• Suitable tools and indicators for monitoring changes in biodiversity that can be used to assess progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. (The targets are a set of 20 measureable targets agreed by parties to the CBD in 2010 that aim to reduce, and eventually halt, the loss of biodiversity at a global level by the middle of the twenty-first century.)
• Indicators of forest genetic diversity, erosion and vulnerability, and genetic considerations in forest landscape restoration.
• Tree based enterprises and the green economy.
• Trees for food and nutrition.

Tree Diversity Day is a collaborative effort between the World Agroforestry Centre and partners in the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry: the Center for International Forestry Research and Bioversity International.

Trees for sustainable energy is a side event on 9 October that will analyze the potential for increasing the use of trees for energy throughout the world.

There is an urgent need to make use of energy from renewable sources. Developed countries are already exploiting tree-based biomass for energy generation, but in developing countries wood-based fuels are often associated with poverty and deforestation.

During this side event, speakers will present the case for using trees for energy, not just fuelwood and charcoal, but also for electricity generation, processing seeds and fruits into biofuels, distilling wood products into ethanol, and (in the future) transforming cellulose and lignin into fuels. The challenges of achieving this sustainably, integrating energy production with food production and reducing the impact on biodiversity or increasing habitat for biodiversity will also be discussed.

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More on ICRAF's participation at CBD COP 12: http://worldagroforestry.org/cop12

Visit CBD COP12 website: https://www.cbd.int/cop2014/default.shtml

Photo: Cocoa agroforestry landscape in Côte d’Ivoire