IUFRO Media Release: Inspire for the future – the role of forests

Our reliance on natural resources has increased by over 65% globally from 2000 to 2019, according to the 2022 progress report on SDG12 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. SDG12 strives to promote the efficient use and sustainable management of natural resources and encourage companies and consumers to adopt sustainable practices.

The forest sector already contributes significantly to reaching SDG12 and related SDGs, acknowledging that trade-offs between ecology and economy are required to achieve goals related to climate, biodiversity and land degradation.

This is the main message of the newly published key messages for policy and decision makers from a high-level event titled “Inspire for the future: the role of forests in ensuring sustainable production and consumption”.

It highlights the vast potential that renewable forest products hold to contribute to the transition towards carbon-neutral societies and towards building inclusive, resilient and sustainable economies. It also emphasizes the need to strengthen local forest-based value chains and to recognize the importance of cities and communities as engines of innovation that provide new sustainable solutions to promote resource efficiency. In light of this, all stakeholders are called upon to help identify and implement innovative pathways to upscale the contribution of forests to a more sustainable future.

Representatives from governments, international organizations, industry, NGOs, research and youth gathered at this high-level event co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and the IUFRO World Congress 2024 | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) on the occasion of the International Day of Forests (IDF) on 21 March 2022 at EXPO Dubai 2020.


Links
PDF:  http://www.fao.org/3/cc2259en/cc2259en.pdf
Card page:  http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc2259en


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The International Union of Forest Research Organizations IUFRO  is a world-wide organization devoted to forest research and related sciences. Its members are research institutions, universities, and individual scientists as well as decision-making authorities and other stakeholders with a focus on forests and trees.

For more information, please contact: Gerda Wolfrum at +43-1-8770151-17 or wolfrum(at)iufro.org