The heads of state and government ministers met in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo.
They called for more international funding for forest conservation in the fight against climate change.
However, they failed to agree on a formal structure to co-ordinate forestry policies around the Equator.
All the pomp of African summits was on display to show the world that rainforest conservation is now a top diplomatic priority for the 35 South American, African and South-East Asian countries invited to take part in this week's summit in Brazzaville.
But only half of them - mostly African nations - sent high-level envoys to Friday's final meeting.
Participants insisted that their forests provided international services such as carbon sequestration [removing carbon from the atmosphere] as well as opportunities to reduce poverty for the estimated 1.5 billion people who make a living from the forests. Read the full report here.
Source: by Thomas Hubert, BBC News, Brazzaville.
