The 2026 APEC Forestry Ministerial Meeting will take place in China's southern tech hub of Shenzhen from July 27 to 28, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.
The high-level gathering, to be themed on "Building a Green Asia-Pacific, Sharing Ecological Well-being," is a key event in China's 2026 APEC host year. It aims to foster regional consensus on forest management amid rapid urbanization and environmental degradation.
The Asia-Pacific region holds more than half of the world's forest area, accounting for approximately 60 percent of global timber product output and 40 percent of the world's timber trade. Yet economies within the region vary in resources and economic development stages while confronting shared threats from global climate change and biodiversity loss - challenges that require technical innovation and tighter regional cooperation.
"This meeting aims to strengthen regional coordination and collaboration, encourage economies to proceed from their respective resource endowments and socio-economic realities to learn from one another and draw on others' strong points to offset their own weaknesses in areas of forest protection and sustainable management, mangrove protection and restoration, national parks and reserves' construction, and forestry development planning," said Li Yunqing, deputy director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
"We hope to jointly forge a new pattern where ecological spaces and green industries develop in synergy, and move together into a clean, beautiful, and green Asia-Pacific where humanity and nature coexist in harmony," Li said.
2026 APEC Forestry Ministerial Meeting to open in late July
