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Greetings from Climate Week here in NYC! We hope you’ve had a great summer. We are excited to share what we’re up to, and what we’ve been working on for the past months.
NEW YORK CLIMATE WEEK
If you are participating in New York for Climate Week between September 18th - 24th, let us know – we’d love to meet you there! Our team is hosting and participating in several events and discussions, including leading a Wood at Work roundtable on sustainable timber urbanism with Bauhaus Earth and Built by Nature (September 20), giving a talk at Columbia University (September 21), and contributing to many forums on how forests and the built environment are key to a low carbon future.
Read our recent interview on the recent New York State Tropical Deforestation-free Procurement Act and our response.
WOOD @ WORK COPENHAGEN / UIA CONFERENCE ROUNDTABLE CONVERSATIONS
At this year's first Wood @ Work conference, hosted in conjunction with UIA World Congress of Architects in July, we hosted a series of conversations on urban consumption and how to co-create systems that link flourishing rural landscapes with thriving cities. Can cities consume products and resources in a way that truly supports forest economies and people? What roles do culture, regulation and technology play in mediating these connections? Experts from around the world brought their unique experiences, challenges and visions for the role of sustainable wood in urban development in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America. We were encouraged to see everyone learn from one another and enthusiastically embrace systemic collaboration as we design new ways to build with and on each others’ energy and experience.
The conversation was exceptionally rich. You can watch the video and also find an audio version here: www.woodatwork.ca/year-2023
COPENHAGEN PARTNER FOREST LAUNCH
Following Wood at Work, our Copenhagen Partner Forest launch gathered honored guests from all over the world, including a delegation from the Congo. Using conservation timber from a partner forest in Mozambique, we supplied wood to construct a raft pavilion, an exciting, publicly accessible component of Copehagen’s iconic harbor. The wood was also used to construct part of the FSC pavilion at UIA. The event demonstrated how a connection between major cities – with their creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and high-density – and community forest enterprises, with their profound mission, entrepreneurship and innovation, can lead to mutually beneficial results: tropical forests conserved through the strategic procurement of products like conservation timber, and beautiful infrastructure created by partners like CPH Raft!
We came away encouraged that with creativity and courage, cities and the people who build them can support people all over the world who are struggling to keep forests intact for their livelihoods, culture and the planet. We are all on this raft (read: Earth) together!
Watch the video recap of the Launch event above.
CO-CREATING THE “CONSERVATION TIMBER” VALUE CHAIN IN MEXICO
In partnership with Rainforest Alliance, Cities4Forests hosted an extraordinary event on June 15th & 16th in the Selva Maya (a.k.a. The Mayan Jungle). The goal: building the capacity of the ‘ejidos’ (locally community forest management units) to supply conservation timber to the world, while showcasing how important this timber is globally to forest conservation and climate. A broad spectrum of stakeholders - including ejido community leaders, youth, conservation NGOs and government officials - were brought together to co-create a more resilient value chain connecting the sustainable production of ejidos community-based conservation system with the demands of the rapidly developing real estate sector in the region. Together, they discussed how protecting this forest landscape can work for the people who own and manage it, while conserving biodiversity and contributing to the planetary health we all depend on. They reaffirmed this common commitment and began to co-create a schematic design for how to get there. This endeavor will require significant long-term and systemic collaboration – to learn more about how we can make this happen you can read more here.
YOUTH VISIONING WORKSHOP IN THE SELVA MAYA
In June we also hosted a Youth Visioning Workshop in Mexico’s Selva Maya as part of our ongoing initiative, The Future of Forest Work. This project uses a co-creation workshop methodology to engage forest youth in communities around the world in deep conversations about their community, vision and goals and ideas for meaningful work. In the Selva Maya, nine youth participants shared how they value their community, the importance of their forest, their career goals (in and out of forests), and their ideas for the future of their lives and communities. Read the full workshop report to learn more. Three youth presented key learnings from the workshop at the Selva Maya Conservation Timber Summit, representing youth experiences, ideas and visions for a sustainable future for some of the world's most biodiverse and carbon rich forests. The reports will be available soon on https://futureforestwork.com/petcacab/.
Looking Forward to the Fall
Stay tuned for more news on the following events we are preparing for this fall! If you are
attending or would like more information on these events please reach out to us.
YOUTH VISIONING WORKSHOPS IN SURINAME – SEPTEMBER 2023
NEW YORK CLIMATE WEEK – SEPTEMBER 17 - 24, 2023
FOREST FOOTPRINT DASHBOARD LAUNCH – TBA FALL 2023
COP28, DUBAI – NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 12, 2023