Global Forest Coalition

Description

The Global Forest Coalition, GFC, is an international coalition of NGOs and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations defending forest peoples’ rights in forest policy.

It was founded in 2000 by 19 NGOs and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations from around the world, as a successor to the NGO Forest Working Group established in 1995. It now has around 134 member groups in 75 countries. It was formally hosted by the World Rainforest Movement until 2005, when it registered as an independent foundation in the Netherlands.

GFC advocates for the conservation and restoration of forest ecosystems by defending the rights, territories, traditional knowledge and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women who live in forests. It takes part in international forest policy meetings and organizes joint advocacy campaigns, targeting bodies such as the United Nations Forum on Forests, the climate change convention and the biodiversity convention. It works to halt deforestation and biodiversity loss, opposes counting plantations as forests, and pushes for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to be respected in forest governance and climate policy.