Description

This project responds to two main recommendations from the 'Third Asia-Pacific Forest Sector Outlook Study' launched in June 2019 at the Asia-Pacific Forestry Week in South Korea.

The first recommendation is the conservation of primary forests. These are forests that are largely unaffected by human activities, and are therefore extremely important for biodiversity conservation, among other reasons. Of the region's 723 million hectares of forest, however, only 19 percent is primary, which is much lower than the global average (32 percent). The solution for protecting primary forests lies in our ability to source timber and other forest products from secondary forests, planted forests or products derived from recycling, reuse or substitution products.

The second recommendation is to understand how innovative technologies can offer opportunities to enhance sustainable forest management. Technological advances are revolutionizing forest management and environmental monitoring, but there are advantages and disadvantages. New technologies should lead to reduced operational costs and increased productivity, sustainability and transparency, as well as being attractive to young people. On the other hand, if not wisely used, technologies can accelerate deforestation and forest degradation, resulting in job losses for unskilled labor. Therefore, there is a fine balance that needs to be explored in promoting the development and use of the right technologies for the right purpose, and promoting the right enabling environment.