(UNFCCC Side Event) From Recognition to Implementation: A Roadmap for Forests as Global Infrastructure

​Science has already demonstrated that forests are indispensable to climate stability, water security, food systems, biodiversity conservation and economic resilience. The challenge is no longer proving their importance — it is ensuring that forests are recognized, valued and governed as strategic infrastructure for a resilient planet.

​Just as societies invest in energy, water and transport systems because they underpin development, investing in forests means investing in the natural systems that make human prosperity possible. Yet forests remain underrepresented in climate agreements, investment decisions and the global financial architecture.

​This event proposes a shift: moving beyond the rhetorical recognition of forests toward their implementation as global infrastructure — identifying the governance models, financing mechanisms, scientific foundations and international partnerships needed to place forests, and nature more broadly, at the center of global climate action.