FAO: Forestry in a new economic climate

Mar 17, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. International demand for wood and wood products has slumped amid the global recession but that does not take the pressure off the world’s forests, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said, as Carbon Positive informed Lesprom Network. In its State of the World's Forests 2009, written in late 2008, the FAO says the global financial crisis and the collapse of the US housing sector in particular have hit the timber industry hard. Demand for wood fibre is expected to fall by 20 million tonnes in North America alone this year with worldwide demand set to stay below its 2005-06 peak levels for some years to come. The latest fortnightly market report from the ITTO bears out the findings, confirming sales fell in January for major timber export nations such as Malaysia, Burma and Brazil as demand dropped off in the US and Europe. Production is falling in response in all segments of the industry but the FAO warns that this is not altogether good news for the fight against illegal logging and deforestation. It says investment in sustainable forest management could suffer, playing into the hands of illegal and unsustainable logging operations. In Africa, forest clearing is not expected to slow because drought, threats to water supplies, growing populations and inefficient agricultural practices are all combining to undermine their sustainable management. In Asia and the Pacific, population growth is set to continue and underpin local wood demand. It also warns that under mounting economic pressure, developing world governments might let slide environmental policies designed to better regulate their forest industries and combat climate change. On the plus side, falls in prices for some tropical crops, including palm oil and rubber, will ease pressure for land clearing in some countries. The FAO said the REDD initiative to develop avoided deforestation market payments is welcome in the fight to halt forest loss but required a lot more work to iron out the complexities in such an approach. The FAO’s assistant director-general of forestry, Jan Heino, called on governments to include sustainable forestry in their economic stimulus plans. He said it was an industry that could create up to 10 million jobs in forest management, agro-forestry farm forestry and plantations, improved fire management, forest recreation, and restoring degraded forests. "As more jobs are lost due to the current economic downturn, sustainable forest management could become a means of creating millions of green jobs, thus helping to reduce poverty and improve the environment," Heino said.