Financial and economic forces are major factors affecting the way that forests are managed. FAO's work on forest finance examines the way that forestry policies can use these forces to improve forest management.
Why is forest finance so important? For some time now, the financial and economic implications of managing forests in different ways have been identified as important factors that influence the implementation of sustainable forest management. Many of the world's forests are managed for the commercial production of goods and services, where financial costs and benefits influence the way that these forests are managed. In the broader context of sustainable forest management, wider issues, such as the distribution of costs and benefits amongst different stakeholders and the non-market costs and benefits of forests, are also becoming more important. Forestry policy is also affected by financial and economic considerations, as governments try to implement policies that increase the benefits of forests to society.
Work on forest finance at FAO. FAO works on the topic of forest finance at a number of levels. At the national level, FAO produces technical guidance, tools and analyses on a wide range of issues, such as: forest valuation; economic analysis of forestry policies; trends in costs and prices; and forest revenue systems. At the local level, this work includes: cost-benefit analysis of forestry projects and policies; training and guidelines for economic appraisal; and the valuation of non-market goods and services from forests. This work is implemented as part of FAO's regular programme of activities as well as through field projects at the regional and country level.
The contents of these webpages. These webpages present the results of a recent project to examine fiscal policies within the context of sustainable forest management and the implementation of national forest programmes in Africa. They also present some tools, models and other studies on the subject of forest economics that may assist countries in the financial and economic analysis of the forestry sector.