Regional Forest Communicators Networks

The Global Coordination Group on Forest Communication was created by FAO to improve communication on forest issues and facilitate capacity development among the regional networks. 

Mandate

• assist coordination among regional networks;
• identify shared opportunities to raise awareness on forest issues across the regions;
• help promote the importance of communication to policy makers, stakeholders and decision makers;
• provide various means of exchange of ideas, information, advice and expertise;
• provide expertise on global and regional communication issues.; 
• advance the exchange of experience among regional networks; and
• promote best practices in forest communication in these networks.

Ways of working

• acts as a think tank or advisory panel;
• works mainly online and works together as resources allow;
• identifies international events at which to organise strategic meetings; and 
• shares information to and from the regional networks.

Membership

All members of the group work in a voluntary capacity and are invited to join the group by FAO to represent the regional networks. The global coordination group is currently chaired by Ingwald Gschwandtl and coordinated by Maria De Cristofaro.

The group reports to the Communications and Outreach Officer, Forestry Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Members

Ingwald Gschwandtl
Chair of the Global Coordination Group, Forest Communicators Networks and Forest Policy Expert

Barbara Tucker
Leader of the Africa Forest Communicators Network and Working for Forests Representative, Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa

Earl Paulo Diaz
Leader of the Asia-Pacific Forest Communicators Network, Communications and Knowledge Manager, Conservation International, Philippines

Kai Lintunen
Leader of the FAO-UNECE Forest Communicators Network and Head of International Communications, Finnish Forest Association, Finland

Jennifer Hayes
Leader of the North American Forest Communicators Network and National Sustainable Operations Coordinator, United States Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station

Marianela Argüello Leiva
Leader of the Latin America and the Caribbean Forest Communicators Network and Technical and Academic Coordination Assistant, Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Costa Rica

Patricia Sfeir
Leader of the Mediterranean and Near East Forest Communicators Network and Manager, Rural Development Programs, Seeds International, Lebanon

Maria De Cristofaro
Global Coordinator of the Regional Forest Communicators Networks and Outreach and Capacity Building, Forestry Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy

The Africa Forest Communicators Networks are voluntary partnerships of forestry communication officers from both private and public sector organizations in English-speaking and French-speaking African countries. 

The networks strengthen forest communication capacity by sharing solutions and best practice techniques to address forestry issues and challenges in the region.

Related links

• Photo gallery

Francophone-African Network

The Francophone-African Communicators Network was established in October 2013. Nine communication and forestry officers from Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Togo, Burundi, Gabon, Senegal, Madagascar, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a resolution creating the network and agreed on the concrete steps to create the tools necessary for the network's future activities. A representative of the communicators network reported on the outcomes of the workshop at the biennial meeting of the African Forestry Wildlife Commission in October at Windhoek, Namibia.

Anglophone-African Network

The Anglophone-African network members are drawn from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Country participants met in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, in 2012 to discuss issues on forestry communication in the eastern and southern region of Africa. The main aims of this workshop were to develop and strengthen forestry communications capacity in the region and to explore the possibility of establishing a self-sustaining sub-regional network of communication practitioners.

Photo gallery

Events

Asia-Pacific forest communicators gear up to communicate sustainable forest management to journalists
17 June 2019
Communicating effectively about forestry to the media and the wider world was the focus of a communication workshop attended by 25 participants from 11 countries as part of Asia-Pacific Forestry Week in Incheon, Korea, this week.

Workshop training focuses on reaching key audiences with forest-related messaging
28 September 2018
Successful communication requires carefully developed messaging that ‘speaks’ clearly and directly to the most important target audiences, specialists in forest-related outreach explained during a training workshop for the Asia-Pacific.

Pacific Forest Communicators Network: Engaging stakeholder interest critical to communicating ecosystem services
12 December 2017
By learning strategies to engage the interest of stakeholders and decision-makers, specialists in ecosystem services can better convey important data and information, a session on communications heard during the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) world conference on Tuesday.

Improving forest communication for people and forests
24 February 2016
Effective communication can not only raise awareness on forests but also bring about real change, according to a session organized at Asia-Pacific Forestry Week by the Asia-Pacific Forest Communicators Network (APFCN), with the Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC) and FAO.

Workshop: Working with local communities in forest landscapes
12 May 2015
Over thirty communication experts, natural resources managers and foresters from over ten countries in the Asia-Pacific region met to learn about participatory development communication approaches in working with local communities.

Adapting to climate change – how can we foster innovative ideas that work?
15 September 2014
Throughout the Asia and the Pacific region, local communities are innovating ways to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Workshop: Strengthening Forest Communications in the Asia Pacific
18 September 2013
Twenty-six communication and forestry officers from both private and public sector organisations throughout the Asia-Pacific region gathered in Hanoi to discuss and identify regional opportunities for collaboration in forest communication issues and knowledge sharing. 

The UNECE/FAO Forest Communicators' Network (FCN) is the longest established network. It was set up by the UNECE Timber Committee and the FAO European Forestry Commission (EFC) over 30 years ago

The network consists of more than 200 people from some 40 countries and 40 international organizations and institutions. While there is often informal ongoing dialogue between members the network also meets annually.

Related links

• UNECE Forest Communication and Outreach
• UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section
• Photo gallery

Objectives

• Supporting forest-related ECE/FAO intergovernmental bodies in reaching out to relevant constituencies, within and outside the forest sector;
• Providing a forum for international interaction and cooperation in forest related communications;
• Developing the professionalism of forest communicators by introducing and encouraging state of the art and innovative communication approaches, strengthening networking and supporting capacities in the region.

Work programme

• Updating the European forest communication strategy;
• Carrying out a gap analyses of existing opinion research and make proposals for improving monitoring and regular analyses on public perception concerning forests, their management and related products;
• Building on the European Forest Pedagogics Concept based on best practice examples, common principles and quality standards for forest related environmental education;
• Providing PR advice to TC/EFC bureaus and joint secretariat, to the Team of Specialists on Forest Products Markets and Marketing as well as to other Teams of Specialists on request.

The first regional workshop on forest communication for countries from Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, was held in St Petersburg, Russian Federation in 2016. Experts from nine countries agreed to strengthen communications and boost the visibility of forestry issues in the region.

The UNECE/FAO Forest Communicators' Network (FCN) is mandated by the UNECE Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry (COFFI) and the FAO European Forestry Commission (EFC) with the overall objective to improve the ability of the forest sector to communicate effectively, within and outside the sector on the role of forests in sustainable development and to advise the ECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section and to support communication activities in all Work Areas, through (among others).

Contact

Team Leader: Kai Lintunen (Finland)
Deputy Leaders: Gerda Wolfrum (IUFRO), Boris Rantaša (Slovenia Forestry Institute)
FAO Secretary: Maria De Cristofaro

The Latin America Forest Communicators Network started in Peru in November 2011. There are now around 50 members from both private and public institutions across the region. The network welcomes new members from any area of forest communications regardless of their qualifications or experience.

Related links

• Facebook: Red de Comunicadores Forestales y Ambientales de América Latina y Caribe
• Flickr album: 2018 Latin American Forest Communicators Network workshop in Turrialba, Costa Rica
• Blog: Red de Comunicadores Forestales y Ambientales de América Latina y el Caribe
• Oficina Regional de la FAO para América Latina y el Caribe 

Events

Building capacity in forest landscape restoration

June 2021, online - Thirty young scientists from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru participated in a virtual forest landscape restoration course from 31 May until 25 June 2021.

Supported by the Coordinator of the Latin America and Caribbean Forest Communicators Network, Marianela Argüello, the course is an initiative of IUFRO-Special Programme for Development of Capacities, implemented by CATIE, with collaboration from the World Resources Institute, Latin American Forestry Students Association, International Forestry Students’Association and the IUFRO Task Force on Forest Education. To guide each session, Argüello and course coordinator, Róger Villalobos, translated IUFRO's Implementing forest landscape restoration - A practitioner's guide.

Promoting effective forest-related communication initiatives in Latin America

Lima, November 2014 - Participants from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay met in Lima at a workshop organized by FAO and Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, bringing together experts in forest communication from various fields - government ministries, media, universities and NGOs. For more information, read the press release.  Photo gallery

The combined network seeks to strengthen the capacities of journalists, public affairs officers and other communicators to build capacity, share success stories and promote learning among its members. The network agreed to share and strengthen common messages, such as the importance of the region to global food security.

9 – 11 December 2014, Lima, Peru - 25 communication and forestry officers from 9 countries gathered at the campus of the university in La Molina, with the goal of working together to improve communication capacity of the forestry sector in Latin America. This interactive workshop was organized by FAO and Peru's National Agricultural University, with the support of the Austrian and the Finnish governments, and the European Forest Communications Network.

The workshop provided an opportunity to share best practices and tools to promote more effective communication campaigns and programmes, exchange knowledge and experiences, generate new contacts and alliances, and to explore the possibility of creating a regional network of communicators working on forest issues.

The significance of both social and traditional media communications was a recurring topic during the workshop’s presentations.

“While the growth of social media is leading to new communication approaches and strategies, journalists and traditional media still play an important role,” said Maria De Cristofaro, Communications and Outreach Officer at the FAO Forestry Department, who conducted and co-facilitated the workshop. She went on to explain that forest communicators often have a negative image of journalists and reporters, or they don't know how to approach them.

Guest speaker Nelly Luna (a former journalist who covered environmental issues for Peru's leading newspaper) offered advice on successful collaborations with print media. She suggested presenting projects in a short, clear, and concise format, since journalists prefer to work with easy-to-understand pieces which they can quickly turn into news.

Maria De Cristofaro presented the participants with a communications toolkit that was developed by FAO's Forestry Department. This is an online product meant to support the work of forest communicators throughout the world, made as a response to the new media landscape, which has arisen from the advent of social media and widespread internet communication.

The Mediterranean and Near East Forest Communicators Network communicates important aspects of the forests in the Mediterranean and the Near East region in line with the challenges and opportunities these resources present. 

Related links

• Mediterranean Forest Communicators Network website
• L'Orient Le Jour, 22 May 2014: Communication autour de la forêt : exemples de réussite

Photo gallery

• Forest Communicator Network Med NE Flickr albums
• Click for more images from FAO Forestry

Web stories

• FAO and partners gear up for Land and Water Days

Events

Communication and social media boot camp in Beirut, Lebanon, 31 March 2019
Twenty-one participants from 9 countries participated in a training workshop over the weekend that focused on effective communication and building social media skills and which was organized by the Forest Communicators Networks and FAO, in Beirut, Lebanon. The workshop, which was funded by FAO the governments of Austria and Finland, coincided with the start of the 6th Mediterranean Forest Week today in Lebanon.

Workshop 13-15 May 2014
Over 30 participants from 10 countries including Egypt, France, Iran, Jordan, Spain, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon and Turkey attended an international workshop on forest communication in Rabat, Morocco from 13 to 15 May 2014. Facilitated by FAO, the main aims of this workshop were to develop and strengthen forestry communications capacity in the region and to explore the possibility of establishing a self-sustaining sub-regional network of communication practitioners.

Mediterranean forest communicators commit to network objectives, 9 November 2012
The Forest Communicators Network in the Mediterranean and Near East reinforced its pledge to increase the visibility of forest issues in the region at a workshop in Rabat, Morocco, this week. Communications experts from Algeria, France, Greece, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey agreed on a series of commitments that include stepping up communication on the need to boost the resilience of the region’s forests to increasing threats – largely from climate change, fire, storms, pests and diseases.

In a significant boost to the global effort in forest communication, the North American Forest Communicators Network was launched in January 2024 at the headquarters of the National Forestry Commission of Mexico (CONAFOR) in Zapopan.

The North American Network brings together over 50 members from both government and private organizations within the forestry sector in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

Members will share their expertise and best practices in forestry communication, foster learning, and build strong regional and international connections.

Read the press release.