International Day of Forests - 21 March

Tags: Important Days

March 21 is celebrated worldwide as the International Day of Forests or World Forestry Day to raise awareness about the importance of forests, woodlands and trees in our lives.

An Overview of the News

• The day highlights the value, importance and contribution of forests to balance the life cycle on earth and addresses issues such as deforestation.

• The theme for the International Day of Forests in 2023 is "Forests and Health", emphasising the interdependence between the existence of forests and our well-being. Forests play an important role in maintaining the existence of all living beings including humans.

• International Day of Forests encourages citizens, governments, non-governmental organisations and other local, national and international bodies to plant trees and make concerted efforts to save forests from destruction.

• The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests during its 61st session on 20 December 2006.

•  Its objective was to promote awareness on the conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests in the context of poverty alleviation and global warming mitigation.

• The decision was taken to underline the importance of forests in achieving development goals.

About the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

• It is the main policy-making and representative part of the United Nations and was created in 1945.

• It is one of the six principal parts of the United Nations (UN).

• It serves as the main deliberative, policy making and representative part of the United Nations.

• Its powers, structure, functions and procedures are set out in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter.

• Its main functions are to prepare the budget of the United Nations, appoint non-permanent members to the Security Council, appoint the Secretary-General of the United Nations, receive reports from other parts of the United Nations system, and make recommendations through resolutions.