ENB @ UNFFO Day 1: New York, USA, February 2001

Election of UNFF Bureau
	The Organizational Meeting opened with election of the Bureau. Mubarak Hussein Rahmtalla (Sudan) was elected Chair.
The Bureau, left to right: Vice-Chair Gustavo Suarez de Freitas (Peru), Coordinator and Head of the UNFF Secretariat Jag Maini, and Chair Rahmtalla. Also elected Vice-Chair were Ambassador Slamet Hidayat (Indonesia) and Alexey Kornienko (Russian Federation).
	Jag Maini, Coordinator of the UNFF, made opening remarks on behalf of Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, who was unable to be present at the meeting. Mr. Maini placed the UNFF in a historical context and highlighted some of the new opportunities and challenges of the forest sector.

Proposals to Host the UNFF Secretariat
Costa Rica proposed location of the UNFF Secretariat in San Jose, citing the sensitivity to forest issues in Costa Rica and the cost advantages of location in a developing country.
	Switzerland proposed location of the Secretariat in Geneva. Sweden, on behalf of the G-77, supported location at a venue outside of the UN Headquarters in New York. The FAO submitted a proposal to host the Secretariat in Rome.

Update on Progress
Hosny El-Lakany, Assistant Director General of the Forestry Department, FAO, presented on progress toward the establishment of the Cooperative Partnership on Forests (CPF) on behalf of the Interagency Task Force on Forests.

On the Side
	A small group of observers attended the Organizational Meeting, including Bill Mankin, Global Forest Policy Project (left) and Joseph Ferrante, Office of the US Trade Representative.
The relaxed pace of the Organizational Meeting allowed delegates to confer privately throughout the day.