The Opening Plenary featured a welcome from M. S. Kaban, Indonesia’s Minister of Forestry, standing in for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, followed by a video message from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Mathaai. Participants then heard brief perspectives on the challenges of integrating forests into the climate change adaptation and mitigation agendas from Kathy Sierra of the World Bank, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Rudy Rabbinge of Wagenigen University, and Ernesta Ballard of the Weyerhaeuser Company.

In the plenary discussion that followed, Forest Day participants raised a number of issues that were examined in depth during the crosscutting theme sessions and various side events later in the day. These included the importance of ensuring biodiversity co-benefits if forests are included in the post-2012 climate protection regime, and governance challenges related to the development of carbon trading mechanisms involving corporate actors.