The third meeting of the Working Group on Integrated Water Resource Management was held in Rome at the premises of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in parallel with the European Forest Week.
On the morning of Thursday, 23 October 2008, there was a special session on forests and water as part of the official agenda of the European Forest Week. The session was organized by the secretariats of the UNECE Water Convention and the FAO Working Party on Mountain Watersheds, together with the Liaison Unit Oslo of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE). The session aimed to present the linkages between forests and water, to promote the implementation of MCPFE Warsaw Resolution 2 “forests and water,”and to contribute to closer interaction between the forest and water communities. Topics covered ranged from financial instruments and economic incentives such as payments for ecosystem services to forests and water-related risk management in the context of climate change and transboundary forest and water-related issues.