Dear Tim
Thank you for your interesting contribution, which opens the discussion to some new aspects (Hollywood!).
I fully agree that social aspects are not covered well enough. One fundamental reason is that our forest community is better at measuring trees and ecosystems than societies and social processes. We have to learn, and your demonstration of the many people-centred ways in which forests contribute to new Zealanders’ welfare was very interesting. In other countries, the list would look quite different. However, unfortunately, I do not think we are ready yet to include an extra indicator to the Global Core Set, which is linked to the global commitments, measurable and universal. But we must work towards this correction as our present unbalanced indicator set (which reflects data measurement problems, but also in many cases, policy priorities) will influence the way we, and people outside the “forest sector”, think about our challenges and issues.
Thanks
Kit Prins
Facilitator
Mr. Christopher Prins