The SDC's focus
A quarter of the world's rural poor depend directly or indirectly on forests. Around 70 million people, including indigenous communities in particular, depend exclusively on forest resources for their livelihoods. At the same time, forests play an important role in mitigating climate change as they absorb carbon dioxide from the air. This makes forests an indispensable part of any approach to the global issues of climate change and poverty. The SDC's forest projects thus have a two-fold advantage: they contribute to reducing both poverty and climate risks.
The Global Programme Climate Change's activities in this area are guided by three priorities:
- Global forest policy and its integration in Swiss forest policy Supporting global thematic forest partnerships; having a proactive influence on the development of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and related global processes in this field; coordinating with other Swiss federal offices
- Operational forest programme with three regional initiatives on the role of forests and rural areas for climate change mitigation and adaptation Namely the Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change in Asia, African Forests, People and Climate Change in Africa, and the initiative on Andean forests and their role in climate change mitigation and adaptation in the Andes
- Focal point for forest issues: supporting bilateral forest programmes and providing consulting services on the topic