The international forest regime is characterized by a large number of actors, policy instruments and institutions. Increasingly, forests are being dealt with outside the traditional forest sector and by non-state actors (as exemplified by forest certification). As no comprehensive scientific assessment had been carried out about the international forest regime before, this GFEP assessment report aimed to fill this gap based on an assignment given by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF).

The second assessment report prepared in the framework of GFEP was published in 2011 and formally presented at the 9th session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), taking place 24 January – 4 February 2011 at the UN Headquarters in New York City.