The International Traditional Healers Exchange & Conference on Promotion of "Traditional Medicine for Sustainable Healthcare" was organized to illustrate that traditional medicine (TM) plays an important role in meeting demands of primary health care in many developing countries and thus occupies a key space in contemporary community health education..

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations University (UNU) celebrated the release of "Learning from the Practitioners: Benefit Sharing Perspectives from Enterprising Communities" at the Closing Session of the Eighth Meeting of the CBD's Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-Sharing in Montreal, Quebec.

After the Talamanca Initiative won the inaugural Equator Prize in 2002 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Benson Venegas served as an ambassador of the Equator Initiative at countless events, as a speaker and panelist on biodiversity and poverty issues, as a facilitator at numerous dialogue spaces, and as a member of the Equator Initiative board. After his passing in September 2009, a benefit was held at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD to honor Benson, Talamanca Initiative, and ANAI.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hosted a High Level Event on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) during the week of the 64th UN General Assembly. From the start of the opening session, the S-G's message was clear: the international community must take decisive action to reduce deforestation and subsequently emissions around the globe, noting that developing countries are on the front lines of climate change.

On 27 May, 2009, in conjunction with the annual session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the UN-REDD Programme held a side event to present and receive input on its Operation Guidance on Engagement of Indigenous Peoples and other Forest Dependent Communities

On Tuesday, May 26, the GEF-Small Grants Programme, in partnership with the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) - TILCEPA, the ICCA Consortium, the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples, and the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee held a side event in conjunction with the annual session of the UNPFII to discuss Indigenous Peoples' and Community Conserved Areas and Territories.

On May 22, 2009, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) addressed the 8th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in a session at the UN Secretariat in New York entitled "Indigenous Peoples and UNDP". Ad Melkert, UNDP's Associate Administrator, and Rebecca Grynspan, UNDP's Regional Director for Latin America, both addressed the Permanent Forum and expressed a desire to gather input from indigenous peoples and listen to indigenous concerns.

During the final day of the 17th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development the Equator Initiative, Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society, UNDP, CCB Standards, and The Nature Conservancy hosted the Commission on Sustainable Development Side Event: Information for Governments on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) at the UN Secretariat in New York.

In preparation for the 8th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Tribal Link, in partnership with the Natural Resources Stewardship Circle and the Convention on Biological Diversitym, held the Indigenous and Local Communities, Business and Biodiversity Consultation at the United Nations Secretariat in New York on the 12th and 13th of May 2009.

At a high level ceremony held in conjunction with the 17th annual session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), representatives from government, civil society and the business community came together to Announce the 2009 SEED Award Winners for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development. The annual prize, awarded for innovation in local, environmentally-friendly entrepreneurship, is the flagship programme of the SEED Initiative - a partnership founded in 2002 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

On March 5th, 2009, the Equator Initiative and the Civil Society Division in the Partnership Bureau, held the second event of the Civil Engagement Dialogue Series, Seminar on Seminar on Family Violence Prevention Strategy: A civic response to domestic violence, which featured the organization Amokura Family Violence Prevention Consortium.

The Leitner Center for International Law and Justice and the Fordham Environmental Law Review hosted their 2009 symposium on Global Responses to Eco-Migration and Environmental Disasters: The Role of U.S. and International Law and Policy at Fordham University.