As UN Declares Year of the Forests, Groups Call for Solutions to Root Causes of Deforestation

At the launch of the High Level segment of the UN Forum on Forests today, Mr. Sha Zhukan, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs will declare 2011 “the International Year of Forests.” Civil society groups advocating forest protection, Indigenous Rights, and climate justice are launching a program called “The Future of Forests,” to ensure that forest protection strategies address the real causes of global forest decline, and are not oriented toward markets or profit-making.

National and Regional Conservation Organizations Tell KFC to Drop the Misleading Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)

Yesterday, a broad based coalition of environmental and conservation organizations representing millions of people in the US submitted a letter to KFC asking the company to end its support for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) paper certification scheme. The letter is in response to a recent initiative announced by KFC that promotes its paper packaging as green because it is certified by the SFI.