ABSTRACT
Forests offer solutions to our most salient problems: how to fight poverty, how to stabilize the climate, how to establish and maintain livelihoods for people who may otherwise be marginalized, how to protect public health and how to enhance ecosystem services. Forests can help us to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With 192 member states, the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) is the only body other than the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to have universal participation. In UNFF’s vision, all countries are forest countries and UNFF’s comprehensive strategy is a 360-degree approach. For historical reasons, however, institutions do not generally mirror this
comprehensive approach. Around the world, environmental, social and economic institutions continue to work separately, in silos. As a result, we lose opportunities to solve problems by using all of these institutions to achieve our shared objectives. UNFF is intent on finding ways to bridge these different areas and related institutions, to facilitate and catalyse collaborative work among them. The ability of forests to absorb and store carbon dioxide has recently dominated the world stage, however, without a 360-degree approach that addresses all of the benefits of forests, including sound livelihoods and healthy forest ecosystems, the goal of carbon absorption will not be achieved and cannot be maintained. It is not an option to protect one role of forests without the others. Essential climate mitigation and adaptation will only succeed in the context of a comprehensive approach to forests. In the past, we made the mistake of valuing forests only for their timber,
which led to serious distortions and in some cases a significant decline in forest cover. Policy-makers learned some lessons from this, as reflected in the many resolutions reached by UNFF that underline the critical importance of internalizing the other benefits of forests in their sustainable management. Now, however, we risk going down the same path by valuing forests only for absorbing carbon, even though this absorption is indeed crucial. The funding for
forests worldwide is small compared to the amount allocated for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries has already exceeded a commitment of US$4 billion, which could undermine a comprehensive approach to forests. We must balance and integrate financial support to address all aspects of sustainable forest management.
