Overview

In response to escalating climate-related challenges affecting forests and forest-dependent communities across Asia, AFoCO has progressively established a set of complementary regional initiatives to operationalize its Climate Action Plan (2025–2034), in alignment with the AFoCO Strategic Plan (2024–2030). Building on the early establishment of Landscape Partnership Asia (LPA) in 2022 as a multi-partner platform for landscape restoration and nature-based solutions, AFoCO further consolidated its climate action framework through the endorsement of four additional initiatives at the Eleventh (11th) Session of the Assembly in 2024: the Asian Forest Living Lab Initiative, the Forest Fire Management in Asia (FFMA) Initiative, the AFoCO Mangrove Initiative, and the REDD+ Readiness Initiative.

Together, these five initiatives form an integrated and mutually reinforcing portfolio that addresses key climate–forest priorities, including science-based innovation, disaster risk management, ecosystem and landscape restoration, coastal resilience, and readiness for climate finance and carbon markets. Designed to respond to the diverse capacities and needs of Member Countries, the initiatives provide scalable platforms for regional cooperation, technical capacity development, and multi-stakeholder partnerships, thereby strengthening AFoCO’s collective contribution to climate-resilient forests, sustainable livelihoods, and the achievement of regional and global climate and development commitments.