According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the bio-energy sector will experience significant growth over the coming decade, rising from the current 10 percent to 30 percent of the world's primary energy mix by 2050. The world population is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050 and will need food and energy. Depending on the land-use policy adopted, deforestation by 2050 could reach between 232 and 55.5 million hectares. The rapid growth of the bio-energy sector and increasing demand for food and fiber will strongly affect land-use globally. Given these trends, how can demands be met while maintaining the long-term sustainability of forests, businesses, communities, bio-diversity, governments, and the economies that depend on them? 

The Forests Dialogue's Initiative on Food, Fuel, Fiber and Forests aims to provide thoughtful leadership, catalyze debate and rally influential stakeholders around the future role and value of forests in relation to food, fuel and fiber, identify key issues on land-use, trade and lifestyle from a global perspective that warrant further dialogue, and develop specific and practical ways forward on key issues.

Dialogues

4F Field Dialogue in Capão Bonito Brazil, 11-14 November, 2012

This Field Dialogue built on the findings from the initial 2011 Scoping Dialogue in Washington D.C.  The dialogue is part of an effort to expand the initiative by engaging key stakeholders in agriculture, forestry, biofuels and food security to:

1) Bridge the forest and agriculture sectors and provide more holistic insight into the challenges of land and water use, intensification of forestry and farming, and expanding patterns of mass consumption in Brazil and internationally;

2) Provide thoughtful leadership and catalyze debate around solutions for conserving forest values, while meeting a growing world population’s needs for food, fuel and fiber;

3)  Identify the key issues on land-use, trade and lifestyle and explore if and how they can be reconciled with local or national aspirations;

4) Establish specific and practical ways forward on key issues, and preparedness to pursue them, amongst stakeholders in Brazil.

The 4F dialogue is funded by BNDES, The Ministry of Environment - Brazil, GIZ, CCAFS,IIED, Fibria, Mondi, IDEAS and Bracelpa and co-organized by The Forests Dialogue, Instituto Ethos, Bracelpa and Fibria.

In the Media:

Reuters AlertNet December 2012
Climate Conversations - Tackling food, fuel, fiber and forests by Xiaoting Hou and Caity Peterson

Ideia Sustentavel December 2012
F de Futuro by Marilia Arantes

Valor Econômico January 2013
Mais diálogo pode ajudar a racionalizar uso da terra by Gisele Paulino
English translation

Meeting materials available.

4F Scoping Dialogue in Washington DC, 1-3 June, 2011

Meeting materials available.