"Trees connecting people - in action together". FAO organises a two-days workshop seminar on urban forestry that will bring together participants with a wide range of professional backgrounds, all of them interested in exploring and defining institutional ways of collaboration and partnership to implement coherent good practices for a healthy urban development.  

The seminar's objective is to share individual knowledge in the field of urban forestryand to forge coherent project propositions. Demographic development and the growth of urban settlements in countries located on the intertropical zone has lead to ever-growing pressures on natural resouces. More specifically, interactions between cities and urban and peri-urban forest ecosystems are multiplex, and their evolution will be pivotal for these forest's future. 

Africa is at the heart of these challenges. Except for some countries where other energy sources have really developed into a viable alternatives, wood and wood-derived products still represent the main, sometimes even the only, source of energy for city dwellers, especially among the poor.  

During the meeting, three regional studies will be presented (Latin America, Africa and Asia). The case study on "Africa" is going to target the problem of wood-derived fuels for urban energy supply. Management of resources (natural and planted forests) and supply chain organisation are part of a participative approach for territory management, and an undispensable condition for implementing politics aimed at sustainable management of peri-urban forest ecosystems and supply basins of the large African capitals. 

Conference announcement