IUFRO-WFSE at UNFF14, 6 May 2019

Coordinator of IUFRO-WFSE, Pia Katila, participated at UNFF 14 as a member of a panel on "Forests, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and employment". Her presentation "Critical interlinkages between SDG 8 and Global Forest Goals" was based on the findings of the forthcoming WFSE publication Sustainable Development Goals: Their Impact on Forests and People that will be published late 2019.

Critical interlinkages between SDG 8 and Global Forest Goals - Summary

The main issue areas addressed in SDG 8 are economic growth and productivity, resource efficiency, employment and decent work for all, entrepreneurship and formalization of micro, small and medium sized enterprises, sustainable tourism and access to financial services. The GFGs on the other hand, focus on forest cover, sustainable forest management and forest protection, forest-based economic, environmental and social benefits, and forest related financing, governance, and cooperation, coordination, coherence and synergies on forest-related issues. There is considerable interaction among SDG 8 and the GFGs. This interaction is importantly related to economic growth and employment, which are also inherently linked to each other. They also offer the main opportunities for synergies and the greatest risks for trade-offs between SDG 8 implementation and efforts towards reaching the GFGs.    

Formal forestry sector contributions to gross national product (GDP) and employment vary considerably among countries. Forests are important for economy in forest rich, low income countries and several northern and eastern European countries. Formal employment tends to follow the economic importance of forest sector. However, in some countries exports focus on roundwood and low-value-added products bringing considerable income but little employment.  

At global level formal forest sector contributions to GDP and employment are generally low and declining as the other sectors develop. This often means that when seeking economic growth other sectors are prioritized due to their stronger contributions to GDP and employment. However, the forest sector contributions to national economy and human well-being are seriously under estimated because large amount of forestry activities take place in the informal sector, which is estimated to equal or exceed formal forest sector contributions to GDP. The employment in the informal forest sector to is estimated to exceed that of the formal forestry sector. Small and medium sized forest enterprises constitute an estimated to 80–90% of forest sector enterprises, and they employ an estimated over 40 million people (part-time or full-time), while the formal forest sector employs just over 13 million people. Informal sector is primarily linked to domestic wood (incl. fuelwood, charcoal) and non-wood products markets and is this especially important for smallholders and communities residing in forested landscapes.

To harness the potential synergies between SDG 8 and Global forest goals requires that forest are integrated into economic growth, sustainable development and poverty reduction strategies (GFG target 5.1). This also requires that there is adequate legislation for supporting sustainable forest management and forest conservation and effective enforcement mechanisms. Synergies can generate employment and incomes at local and regional level, and support the livelihoods of forest-dependent people as well as other rural residents. But, in most countries their impact at national level and global level will remain modest due to the limited contributions of forestry to national economies.

Competing sectors (agriculture, energy and mining) hold higher potential for generating economic growth and employment. Significant trade-offs are expected in countries focused on the growth of these sectors as they compete with forests for land, and can also lead to negative environmental impacts that affect forests beyond the area converted to other uses (for example, pollution of soils and water, release of carbon, loss of forest ecosystem services that support agricultural production) with corresponding impacts on people’s health and forest-related livelihoods.

Furthermore, forests’ contributions to economy and well-being are greatly undervalued because the value of the crucial life-supporting ecosystem services forests provide such as carbon sequestration, provision of clean water, pollination, habitat for biodiversity, etc. are not recognized nor included in national accounts. Altogether the lack of reliable information on the extent of and employment in the informal activities and the extent and value of forest ecosystem services undermines forestry's role in development.  The lack of reliable information on these contributions means that they are often not included in natural resources and development related decision making.

Business as usual approaches to economic growth and its measurement will perpetuate trade-offs to the detriment of forests as they do not take account resource depletion. Alternative approaches and indicators are needed to measure progress beyond GDP. Such measures should better reflect the full values of the goods and services and related livelihood benefits forest provide.  An important issue from the point of view of sustainable development also is that the current growth measures (GDP) do not take into account resource depletion, and thus do not provide an indication of whether growth is sustainable. The decoupling of economic growth from forest-related environmental degradation will be a major challenge, but if attained would support the progress towards reversing forest loss and increase the area of protected forests. This would further support forest-related livelihoods.