Compass North How are the world’s forests doing?

How are the world’s forests doing?

The shrinking of the forest cover does not only mean that there are fewer and fewer trees in the world. Forest destruction also further reduces the habitats of endangered species dependent on forests. While the main reason for forest destruction lies in developing countries — forest clearance for agriculture — its consequences affect the entire world.

Specifically, the reduction in forest cover weakens the ability of forests to mitigate climate change. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) supports efforts towards sustainable forestry by maintaining and publishing information on the state and development of the world’s forests and by promoting cooperation with forest sector organizations at many different levels and in many different ways.

Jan Heino, the FAO’s Finnish Assistant Director-General with responsibility for forest issues, stresses the importance of effective forest management. In the developing countries, the state usually owns the forests, but in the absence of an effective forestry and forest protection organization, the forests are not really looked after by anyone. When the owner does not take an interest in what he owns, the forests are cleared locally for food production, even if the land is not particularly suitable for agricultural use.

Forests serving people

The situation is worrying but not hopeless. Improvements in forest policy in various countries have been reflected in a reduction in the rate of forest destruction. In many countries, the area of planted forest has increased dramatically and reversed the declining trend in forest resources. Forest area in Europe has grown substantially over the last fifteen years. Spreading of forest to land withdrawn from agricultural use explains half of this increase, while the other half is the result of active afforestation.

Multi-purpose use of forests has become established as self-evident in Finland, where ‘everyman’s rights’ guarantee everybody the right to recreational use of the forests – hiking, and picking wild berries and mushrooms. According to Heino, people are beginning to talk about the multi-purpose use of forests throughout the world. He points out that multi-purpose use means something very different in, say, Africa than it does in the developed countries, where landscape values and use for recreation and protection take a front seat.

There are conservation areas and national parks in many of the developing countries, but forests are also being planted to be used as fuel and timber, and gradually for industrial use as well. According to Heino, the human viewpoint — that the primary purpose of forests is to serve people — is gaining ground worldwide.

“Here in the Forestry Department at the FAO, our position is that the forests are not there as an end in themselves; they are there first of all to serve the local population.”


BY RISTO PITKÄNEN
PHOTO BY EIJA HILTUNEN

Jan Heino stresses the importance of effective forest management