They say you haven’t been to the COP if you haven’t been to Forests Day, a feeling shared by the 1000+ people who descended on the Olive Convention Centre this Sunday. The frantic excitement surrounding the day explains why our booth had already been picked clean of FPIC guidance manuals and briefing papers by eager punters – before we had even turned up!

‘Landscapes’, ‘agriculture’ and ‘food security’ were the buzz-words of the day – and rightly so in a continent where most of the forest is located in dryland agricultural areas.  In the opening plenary, Tina Joematt-Petterson, the Minister of Environment for South Africa, proclaimed “agriculture is critical to REDD+.”

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