The Model Forest Act Initiative (MoFAI) is a groundbreaking initiative to transform national forest laws to address 21st-century challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and the bioeconomy. MoFAI has developed the General Part of the Model Forest Act and accompanying Legislative Guide as knowledge resources for legislators and policymakers in designing national forest legal frameworks for the modern context, enhancing forest protection and ecosystem services, and providing a systematic, institutionalized dialogue to deliver expertise, efficiency, and scale required to match the severity of the global forest crisis.

This side event will provide a platform for launching the Model Forest Act and the executive summary of the Legislative Guide, which is designed to frame the interpretation and application of the Act’s provisions. It will be structured as a panel discussion convening leading environmental policymakers and practitioners, introducing participants to the structure and content of MoFAI, exploring how this initiative can advance the KMGBF, and paving the transition between its development over the past three years and its practical implementation in spurring national forest law reforms going forward. 

The General Part of the Model Forest Act is designed as a framework law and legal blueprint, providing a broad structure that can be further developed through specific parts and regulations. The MoFAI utilizes a structured, interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder, and evidence-based approach to create a model legislative framework that can be applied and tailored to country-specific contexts and needs. The General Part of the Model Forest Act is based on a modular structure, with a “shopping cart” approach, enabling users to select and adapt provisions as appropriate, and a knowledge resource to draw upon in the development of national forest laws.

The General Part of the Model Forest Act and legislative guide are being developed by a high-level drafting committee encompassing global experts from the legal, policy and scientific disciplines, informed by extensive consultations with diverse stakeholders from around the globe, as well as an Advisory Council providing technical inputs on specific aspects of the text. Since the launch of the initiative in July 2023, consultations have taken place in Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Rome, New York, Tokyo, and the Amazon region.

The MoFAI is supported by a global alliance of partners to advance a global public good vital in safeguarding biodiversity, regulating and adapting to climate change, leveraging ecosystem services, and providing livelihoods and human well-being. The key partners involved in the initiative include the Global Judicial Institute on the Environment (GJIE), Asian Development Bank (ADB), IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (IUCN-WCEL), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Forum on Forests (UNFF), Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), the World Bank Group, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Objectives and outcomes of the side event: 

• Launching: the General Part of the Model Forest Act and the Executive Summary of the Legislative Guide, both as products of three years of consultations across all regions of the world, many institutions, and a diversity of stakeholders and community of practice.
• Presenting: the Model Forest Act Initiative (MoFAI) as a structured, interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder, and evidence-based approach to develop a model law on forest protection addressing interconnected challenges.
• Highlighting: how the MoFAI contributes to advancing the objectives and implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), especially Target 10. 
• Convening: global and regional leaders and policymakers to support MoFAI and provide momentum for its uptake and implementation at the national level, building on its recent and ongoing role in forest law reforms in Fiji and Papua New Guinea.