The Forests Dialogue

Press Release: Conservation of World's Forests Key to Planet's Survival

About TFD

The Forests Dialogue (TFD) is a group of individuals from diverse interests and regions that are committed to the conservation and sustainable use of forests. Through a shared understanding of forest issues from their own dialogues, members of The Forests Dialogue work together in a spirit of teamwork, trust, and commitment. They believe that their actions and relationships can help catalyze a broader consensus on forest issues and encourage constructive, collaborative action by individual leaders that will improve the condition and value of forests.

The Forests Dialogue, which is ad hoc, seeks to support and reinforce existing efforts related to forest management. Members of TFD participate as individuals, not organizational delegates, and they aim to speak for a diversity of perspectives. TFD processes and activities are transparent, complement the actions of others, and seek to advance progress by creating leadership cadres on key issues based on individuals with broader personal consensus.

The Forests Dialogue Summary Document (PDF)

Priority Issues

Investing in Locally Controlled Forestry Forestland and forest-products enterprises managed by smallholders, community groups, and forest-dependent peoples can make significant contributions to sustainable development. However, the investment required for such enterprises is often lacking or misplaced. In addition, concerns have been raised about potential threats to the legal or customary rights of forest-dependent people when investments are made from outside. Work needs to be done to understand the problems faced by local forest owners and managers in this context, and solutions must be found to direct investments in a sound manner towards their enterprises. TFD convened a series of dialogues on these issues in 2009.	Forests and Climate Recent acceptance of the role of forests in combating climate change provides significant opportunity for the forest sector to play an influential role in international climate policy negotiations, both under the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change and its associated Protocols, and in relation to the emerging voluntary market for forest-based carbon offsets. For forest stakeholders to take advantage of this opportunity they must be aware of the developing policies and participate in their formation to the greatest extent possible. TFD convened a series of dialogues on this issue from 2007 to 2009.
Forest Certification The last few years have seen the proliferation of certification of forest products on international and national scales. Until recently, the systems for certifiying these products systems stood fully apart from one another, with little communication between them on lessons learned or assessment of whether the schemes achieve their purposes. Seeking to facilitate the sharing of this information, TFD convened a series of dialogues from 2002 to 2004.	Forests and Biodiversity Conservation Recognizing that there might be unrealized opportunities for collaboration between environmental groups and the forestry industry in the Atlantic rainforest region of Brazil—one of the most diverse and threatened areas of the world—TFD convened a series of dialogues from 2003 to 2007 focusing on improving cross-sectoral cooperation for biodiversity conservation in the region.
Illegal Logging Illegal logging in many regions of the world causes social conflict, harms forest ecosystem health, and costs governments billions of dollars in lost tax revenue. A significant amount of this illegally cut wood enters global trade, depressing the prices of wood products and presenting unfair competition to those companies that respect the law. In a series of dialogues in 2005, TFD brought together business leaders, environmental and social NGOs, industry associations, forest owners, retailers, researchers, and intergovernmental organizations to share experiences and promote commitment to reducing illegal logging.	Intensively Managed Planted Forests Plantation forests—even-aged stands of a single tree species established primarily for wood production—are one of the defining features of forestry in the past century. An increasing proportion of these forests are “intensively managed”, that is, they are forests of relatively high productivity in which the owner makes a sustained investment to optimize returns from industrial wood supply. Such forests can provide important economic and ecological values, but they can also entail substantial environmental and social costs. TFD convened a series of dialogues from 2005 to 2008 on these issues, bringing together business leaders, environmental groups, researchers, certification organizations, and government agencies.
Forests and Poverty Reduction By some estimates, over a billion people in developing countries depend on forests for their livelihoods, yet commercial forestry—especially small-scale commercial forestry—has had limited impact on reducing poverty. High capital and technological requirements, insecurity of land tenure over long time frames, and the small size of many enterprises have inhibited commercial wood production from becoming a significant factor in local economic growth. TFD convened a series of dialogues from 2006 to 2008 to explore so-called “pro-poor” commercial forestry, initiatives by governments, businesses, and others aimed at raising rural incomes through sustainable commercial forestry.	Small Forests Owners and Sustainable Forest Practices Small forest landowners manage millions of hectares of forestland around the world and therefore must be included in efforts to promote sustainable forest management. With the exception of a few well-coordinated groups (Confederation of European Private Forest Owners, American Tree Farm System, and some local and regional cooperatives), small and family forest landowners tend to be heterogeneous and beyond the reach of most conventional mechanisms to promote and recognize sustainable management. TFD has begun a dialogue series to catalog the barriers faced by smallholders, to identify available sustainable management tools, and to explore the mechanisms by which markets can recognize landowners for sound practices.