The Atlantic Forest Conservation Dialogue: A regional dialogue of “The Forests Dialogue”

From October 9 through October 11, 2003, thirty representatives from environmental groups, the forest products industry, landowners and academia met in Santa Cruz da Cabrália, Brazil, to discuss issues related to forestry and biodiversity conservation. This meeting was convened by The Forests Dialogue (TFD), an on-going international multi-stakeholder dialogue process focused on forestry related issues. The Dialogue focused on exploring opportunities for collaboration between environmental groups and the forestry industry on biodiversity conservation. The Dialogue concluded with a commitment of all participants to implementing and reporting on practical actions that combine leadership, conservation planning and priority setting approaches, biodiversity information tools, social and political factors, and funding and related economic incentives to achieve measurable conservation outcomes.
The success of the 2003 Forest & Biodiversity Dialogue inspired three Brazilian organizations who participated in the Dialogue – Instituto BioAtlântica, The Nature Conservancy do Brasil and Conservação Internacional do Brasil – to propose a follow-up Dialogue involving more regional actors and focused specifically on developing a shared vision for forestry and biodiversity conservation in the Atlantic Forest.
This proposal was met with enthusiasm by the TFD Steering Committee, and now the three proposing organizations are in discussions with corporate and conservation leaders to bring this concept to life within Brazil. The hope is that this “Atlantic Forest Conservation Dialogue” will both generate tangible conservation and business outcomes for the participants and the Atlantic Forest, as well as serve as a model for other regionally focused dialogues for the Forest Dialogue.