• HWP production and use has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through direct carbon storage, substitution of non-renewable materials, and increased availability of biofuels.
• Wood and HWP can contribute to the achievement of multiple sustainable development goals (SDGs) including the promotion of sustainable economic growth, combating climate change and its impacts, and the protection, restoration and promotion of the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.
• Most but not all studies to date, across countries and continents, have indicated that use of HWP can reduce carbon emissions in both the long and short term but considerable uncertainties remain.

Estimating the contributions of HWPs to climate change mitigation plays a role in many decision-making processes. These include: 1) country level accounting of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2) assessing forest carbon credits used in regional or national emission control policies, 3) guiding the development of sustainable forest management plans, 4) issuing environmental product declarations (EPDs), 5) guiding the development and deployment of new wood products and related industries, and 6) designing effective wood encouragement policies.

Using FAOSTAT data and calculation methods from the IPCC, we have explored potential impacts of shifts to longer-lived HWPs, increased recycling, and improved data quality. In the InfoBrief, Climate change mitigation and harvested wood products: Lessons learned from three case studies in Asia and the Pacific, total sustainable production and consumption of longer-lived HWPs, e.g. sawnwood and wood-based panels, may contribute to increasing carbon stocks. Recycling and re-use of paper and wood may have similar positive impacts by increasing carbon storage times. Improved data quality may enable increased precision in estimated benefits.

Together with partners and collaborators, we have synthesized available information in Forest products in the global bioeconomy: Enabling substitution by wood-based products and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. This report addresses the role of forest products in replacing fossil-based and GHG-intensive products. It begins with an overview of the role of forest products in the bioeconomy and presents examples of conventional and innovative forest products. The report also provides a quantitative and qualitative review of the environmental impacts and benefits of substituting fossil fuel-based or GHG-intensive products with forest-based products, of the contribution of substitution to the SDGs, and of the potential impact that increased substitution could have on global patterns of supply and demand.

New modelling efforts are underway by FAO under the IUFRO-WOOD for GLOBE initiative.  Early results were synthesized in Wood Products for Climate Change Mitigation in the Asia-Pacific Region, a region where both production and consumption of wood products is rapidly growing. Findings highlight that, while long-lived harvested wood products currently make a modest contribution to total emissions reductions, they are an important part of a comprehensive approach to decarbonising key sectors such as building and construction.

Focusing on global trends in engineered wood product supply and demand, a second paper, Forest Product Demand and Supply in a Bioeconomy Transition: The possible role of timber for climate change mitigation’  was developed by FAO, Bauhaus Earth and a range of international researchers to estimate high-level trends in globally engineered wood product supply and demand for the construction sector until 2070. Preliminary results suggest that higher adoption of engineered wood products in construction could provide 50 percent of emission savings as compared to business-as-usual scenarios.

• Foong, A., Karpov, A., Gupta, A. et al. 2025. Forest product demand and supply in a bioeconomy transition: the possible role of timber for climate change mitigation. Prooceedings of World Conference on Timber Egineering 2025.
• Keenan, R., Bull, L., Steel, A. and Walter, S. 2025. Wood products for climate change mitigation in the Asia-Pacific Region. Prooceedings of World Conference on Timber Egineering 2025.
• FAO. 2022. Climate change mitigation and harvested wood products: Lessons learned from three case studies in Asia and the Pacific - InfoBrief. Bangkok, Thailand.
• Verkerk, P.J., Hassegawa, M., Van Brusselen, J.et al. 2022. Forest products in the global bioeconomy – Enabling substitution by wood-based products and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Rome, FAO.

Employment related to the forest sector’ is part of the Global Core Set of forest-related indicators (GCS, indicator 12), that aims to simplify and harmonize concepts and terminology, while respecting the needs of all potential users.

Data providers for this indicator include FAO, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and others. For FAO, data collection is carried out as part of the Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA).

FAO, through its Forestry (FRA, Forest Products and Bioeconomy) and Statistics Divisions, established a partnership with ILO and the Thünen Institute for Forestry to improve the availability of data related to employment in the forest sector.

According to Lippe et al, 2022,

• approximately 33 million people globally were employed for the period 2017– 2019, accounting for 1 percent of total employment across all economic activities;
• informal employment accounts for a significant proportion of forest-related employment, particularly in developing countries;
• women in the forest sector have a higher probability of having informal jobs than men;
• existing data on forest-related employment underline the importance of the forest sector in people’s livelihoods
• data collection should be aligned with the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) guidelines and resolutions, and conducted in close collaboration with national and global statistical and sectoral stakeholders and authorities, based on social dialogue, including the participation of forest sector employers’ and workers’ organizations, where applicable.

• Lippe, R.S., Schweinle, J., Cui, S., Gurbuzer, Y., Katajamäki, W., Villarreal-Fuentes, M. and Walter, S. 2022. Contribution of the forest sector to total employment in national economies. Rome and Geneva, FAO and ILO.
• FAO & CPF. 2022. Status of, and trends in, the Global Core Set of Forest-related Indicators. Rome, FAO.
• FAO & Natural resources Canada. 2024. Workshop on Advancing Employment Data and Promoting Decent Work in the Forest Sector – Lessons learned and good practices from Canada.
• FAO & ILO. 2024. Workshop on Advancing Employment Data and Promoting Decent Work in the Tanzanian Forest Sector.
• News: Workshop on Advancing Employment Data and Promoting Decent Work in the Forest Sector in Türkiye

Together with partners from other international agencies, academia, and governments, FAO has been enhancing the methodology for estimating wood fuel removals and wood charcoal production where countries do not submit official figures.

The new machine-learning approach enhances the estimation process by building on officially submitted statistics and also information from government websites, household consumption surveys conducted by international organizations, and published research. Revised estimates based on this methodology were published in Nature Communications and suggest an additional 30 percent of wood fuel removals than previously understood. 

These estimates – which include not only stems of harvested trees but also branches harvested and dead wood collected – would mean that wood fuel removals account for more than half of the wood removed from forests and trees outside of forests globally.  Read the full news story on the Forestry Division website here. Work is underway to apply these new methods to the full time period for FAOSTAT data in order to revise estimates produced on FAOSTAT as far back as 1961.

• FAO Forestry Newsroom. Rome, 23/07/2025. New methods developed for estimating wood fuel removals and wood charcoal production.
• FAO. 2018. Guidelines for the incorporation of a woodfuel supplementary module into existing household surveys in developing countries. Rome.
• Steel, E.A., Stoner, O., Podschwit, H. et al. 2025. Global wood fuel production estimates and implications. Nat Commun 16, 6227.
  

Supporting the sustainable use of these non-wood forest products is one of the priority actions in FAO Forestry’s Roadmap: from Vision to Action towards 2031. The overall goal of FAO’s work on non-wood forest products is to optimize the contributions of non-wood forest products towards improved food security and nutrition, income generation as well as biodiversity and climate outcomes.

We produce data and statistics on key non-wood forest products. And, we summarize information on NWFPs in the existing national and international statistical systems so that users can compile statistics on non-wood forest products according to their needs.

We have also piloted methods for improving quantification of collection and consumption through household surveys. Rural households in Zambia were estimated to collect over 380 million litres, 380,000 m3, of wild foods annually, almost 90% of which are collected directly from forests. We are collaborating with colleagues at CIFOR-ICRAF to scale these methods and produce new estimates based on a larger and nationally-representative sample.

Looking at the nutritional impact of wild fruit collection alone, we estimate that, for surveyed households in Zambia, wild fruits collected from forests contribute approximately 80% of total fruit intake, enough to meet 25% of international recommendations on fruit intake.

• Steel, E.A., Bwembelo, L., Mulani, A. et al. 2022. Wild foods from forests: Quantities collected across Zambia. People and Nature. 2022;4:1159–1175
• Ickowitz, A., Bwembelo,L., Mulani, A. et al. 2021. Collection and consumption of wild forest fruits in rural Zambia. Info Brief no. 324.
• Sorrenti, S. 2017. Non-wood forest products in international statistical systems. Rome.

Forests are essential to the regulation of freshwater quality, quantity and timing within freshwater (inland water) ecosystems. These freshwater (inland water) ecosystems are essential for human health and agriculture as well as host exceptional rates of biodiversity. They are at risk from land-use changes and land degradation.

In partnership with FAO’s Forest and Water thematic area and Forest Monitoring Team within the Forestry Division as well as the Inland Fisheries team, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, we support an understanding of the essential role of forests, including headwater forests, riparian forests, and floodplain forests, in providing downstream water for nature and people. Forests and inland fish, for example, are inextricably linked through the flow of water across watersheds and have a direct impact on the health and nutrition of all. See, for example, Resilient rivers: counting fish from forests for food security, a joint initiative with Inland Fisheries that seeks to transform the management of these resources through multidisciplinary collaboration.

Considering water as a forest product and the importance of high-quality statistics, we also support freshwater (inland water) restoration reporting and monitoring through activities under the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration. With colleagues from across the freshwater (inland waters) sector, we published Enabling consistent reporting and monitoring for freshwater (inland waters) restoration under Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We are continuing collaborations to provide guidance linking forests and freshwater (inland waters) across the full restoration cycle and to improve data interoperability across international agencies and databases.

Publications

• FAO, CIFOR & Worldfish. 2023.  Forests, freshwater, and fisheries providing food security and sustainable livelihoods. Rome.
• Moombe,K.B., Hernández Barrero, S., Bwembelo, L. et al. 2025. Toward Resilient Rivers: Insights from the Kafue, Magdalena and Atrato River Basins in Zambia and Colombia. Info Brief no. 420.
• Steel, E.A., Obiang Ndong, G., Adelola, T. et al. 2025. Enabling consistent reporting and monitoring for freshwater (inland waters) restoration under Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Rome, FAO.

E-learning

• Resilient rivers: Watershed-based management of forests, freshwater, and inland fisheries

Platforms

• SEPAL - Resilient rivers and basins