Asia Pacific Forest Sector Outlook Innovative Forestry For A Sustainable Future

Young students and people, formally or informally engaged in the forest sector, will be the guardians and managers of tomorrow’s forests. Technology savvy, the youth can play an instrumental role in the uptake and scaling-up of innovative technologies (whether digital technologies, biological technologies, technical innovations on processes and products, or innovative finance and social innovations), able to advance sustainable development in the forest sector in the region. Young people can bring in the innovation debate forward-looking perspectives and out-of-the-box thinking. This is why FAO and CIFOR/FTA decided to strengthen their voice in the debate, relaying their experiences and propositions for sustainable innovation in the forest sector. This FAO and CIFOR co-publication gathers 13 youth contributions, carefully selected. These contributions illustrate, in various contexts, the potential of innovative technologies to advance sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management in the Asia-Pacific region.

This outlook study focuses on the Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS), comprising 14 countries in the Pacific region – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu (Melanesia); the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Palau (Micronesia); and the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu (Polynesia). It examines the future prospects for forests and trees in the Pacific, providing insights into potential pathways of change and options for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study was prepared by FAO in response to a request from the Pacific Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry and incorporates information from country outlook papers, thematic studies, and various published and unpublished sources.

The preservation of forests, sustainable forest management (SFM), forest landscape restoration (FLR) and the need to make the most of precious forest resources are priority issues in the policy and sustainable development agenda of the Asia-Pacific region. Innovation will be key in the coming decades to meet the increasing demand for wood and other forest products while halting and reversing deforestation, in line with the commitment taken at COP26 in Glasgow by the international community. However, uptake of innovative technologies has been slow and uneven in the Asia-Pacific region, and there remains a gap between political commitments and the investments – in education, capacity building, and infrastructure development – required to put them into practice. This technical report examines the potential and barriers to disseminating and deploying innovative technologies for SFM in the region and provides overarching recommendations and specific options for decision-makers. It delineates and informs the process by which decision-makers and actors can identify: the potential of innovative technologies to advance SFM; their potential impacts; constraints to technology uptake and scaling up, and how to overcome these constraints and facilitate adoption.

Forests are under tremendous pressure from human uses of all kinds, and one of the most significant threats to their sustainability comes from commercial interests. This book presents a comprehensive examination of the interactions between the forest products sector and the sustainability of forests. It captures the most current sustainability concerns within the forestry sector and various sustainability-oriented initiatives to address these. Experts from around the world analyze interconnected topics including market mechanisms, regulatory mechanisms, voluntary actions, and governance, and outline their effectiveness, potential, and limitations. By presenting a novel overview of the burgeoning field of business sustainability within the forestry sector, this book paves a way forward in understanding what is working, what is not working, and what could potentially work to ensure sustainable business practices within the forestry sector,