The Deputy Director of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support of UNDP, Stan Nkwain, explained the role of UNDP as a GEF implementing agency and outlined the way in which it contributed to the UN-REDD partnership. He also highlighted the urgent need to tackle deforestation and forest degradation at all levels, and the contribution that this would make to climate change mitigation. The Permanent Observer for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Narinder Kakar, explained that the Union worked with partners to build capacity and provide support for the restoration of degraded and deforested lands around the world, adding that it had a global network of 1,269 members in some 160 countries who could leverage support for the implementation of sustainable forest management. He also highlighted the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, which is coordinated by a secretariat hosted at the Union and aims to spread best practice and political awareness of restoration and its benefits.