Most importantly, forests play a critical role in climate change: deforestation results in 12-18 percent of the world's carbon emissions – almost equal to all the CO2 from the global transport sector.

[14][15] In November 1971, the "States members" at the 16th session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization, voted to establish "World Forestry Day" on March 21 of each year.

[1] From 2007 to 2012, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) convened a series of six Forest Days, in conjunction with annual meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties.

[16] The inaugural Forest Day was one of the major events at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) 13 in Bali, Indonesia on 8 December 2007.

More than 800 people participated in Forest Day, including scientists, members of national delegations, and representatives from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

These include biodiversity conservation, rainfall generation and products that are crucial to the livelihoods of local forest dependent and indigenous peoples as well as to the economies of many countries.

Frances Seymour, Director General of CIFOR delivered a summary of Forest Day 2[18] to Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.

Although the UNFCCC failed to agree on binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,[19] significant progress was achieved in negotiating the outlines of a REDD+ mechanism.

Keynote speeches by Daniel Nepstad, Director of the International Program at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute and Mirna Cunningham Kain, Chair of the Center for Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples, emphasized the critical needs for both sound forestry and climate change science, and pro-active engagement with indigenous people and forest-dependent communities as the de facto and de jure custodians of land and forest resources to secure equitable outcomes.

CIFOR convened the event, which was co-hosted by 11 members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests and the Government of South Africa through the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

[25] Forest Day 6 took place on the sidelines of COP 18, on 2 to 3 December 2012, and considered issues ranging from REDD+ financing to adaptation, desertification, reforestation and afforestation.

[27] The inaugural International Day of Forests "was celebrated around the world through tree-planting and other community-level events, including art, photo and film as well as social media outreach.

A special event was held at the United Nations headquarters on "Women as agents of change for forests and sustainable development".

[34] In Rome, FAO headquarters, a special event was held to highlight forests’ crucial role in contributing to water and food security.