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The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has been in existence for nearly ten years. For the world's forests, the CBD is potentially a very important instrument, since the majority of the world's terrestrial biodiversity lies in forests.

The Convention objectives are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of biological resources, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from utilisation of genetic resources. The Convention provides a comprehensive approach to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. As part of a legally binding inter-governmental instrument, CBD articles and decisions are considered as 'soft law'.

For a long time, forests did not received the attention in the CBD that they deserve, despite the fact that the ground work for successful action to protect forest biological diversity had been laid in several key decisions and processes within the CBD. At the sixth Conference of the Parties (COP6) in April 2002, the CBD adopted an eight-year action oriented work programme on forests which addresses forests in a holistic manner and proposes a rather complete list of activities that could help tackle the forest crisis.

Fern's campaign for the CBD aims to ensure that:
• the expanded work programme on forests is actively implemented at national and international levels and progress is evaluated and reported;
• EU member states meet their commitments under the CBD especially in regard to cross- sectoral forests issues
• enhanced means are created for civil society and major groups participation in the Convention itself and in the implementation of the work programme on forests and other forest related decisions, at both national and international levels
• the work is co-ordinated with other forest-related instruments like the United Nations Forum on Forests and the Kyoto Protocol.