Forests cover 30 percent of global land area, contain most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and more carbon than the atmosphere. They provide livelihoods for more than a billion people and are vital for conservation of biodiversity, energy supply, and soil and water protection. 

Forests also have a major role in climate change mitigation, trapping and storing more than a trillion tonnes of carbon each year, yet at the same time, destruction of forests sends six billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. All of this indicates the crucial need for sustainable forest management (SFM). Sustainable forest management curbs forest degradation and deforestation while increasing direct benefits to people and the environment through sound policies and sustainable practices. At the local level, SFM contributes to peoples’ livelihoods, income generation and employment. At the environmental level, it contributes through, for example, carbon sequestration and water and soil conservation. 

Broad involvement in developing and implementing SFM 

FAO promotes SFM by supporting Member Countries directly through field projects and by working at international level to address and help solve regional and global forest-related issues. In strengthening and widening the practice of SFM, it is critical to make sure that all – from those who harvest mushrooms or cut trees to those who process timber and those who set policies – are involved in the process of developing SFM strategies and also have the capacity to implement them. Having the right data and information in order to make sound decisions to this end is essential.

If you wish to become a partner in a specific activity, or are simply looking for more information, please see the section below for some of the key programmes which fall under this IFA, and where further resources are required for follow-up actions.

Timely, comprehensive and reliable information is a prerequisite for the development of effective national policies and international agreements related to forests and forestry.

As part of its mandate to “collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture”, FAO has been conducting assessments of the world’s forest at five to ten year intervals since 1946. The main report of the latest assessment was released in October 2010. There are no other comparative assessments of the world’s forests and most of the other forest related organizations rely on the data collected by FAO for their reports. These global assessments have evolved over time, and now cover 223 countries. Over 900 specialists from all over the world including an active network of national correspondents and their teams in 178  countries are involved.