Historically, global methods for monitoring forests have rarely included water considerations. This is a result of several factors, one being the highly contextual and complex nature of forest and water relationships, which often creates obstacles related to the development of tailored monitoring and management strategies. Resource and capacity limitations, regional research bias, and the prioritization of other forest ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration have exacerbated this challenge.  

In recent years, however, the forest-water nexus has begun to gain political attention at the international level. This was illustrated within the Shiga Declaration, Warsaw Resolution 2, and more broadly in national and international events that have taken place on forest and water interactions. Most recently, this was seen at COP28 where the Forest-Water Champions led a side event on "Landscapes for water – Scaling up locally-led climate action" in the Resilience Hub. Here, the importance of the forest-water-climate nexus was discussed. 

Understanding forest-water management 

Dispelling myths about the management of forests for water functions is a key step towards elevating these conversations to a global level. For example, the idea that managing forests to provide healthy water functions requires new management tools, or the preconception that sustainable forest management for other ecosystem goods and services, including timber, is not compatible with water-quality objectives. 

Although it is true that trade-offs may be required when managing forests for multiple functions, there are also synergies; for example, water quality is closely linked to soil conservation, a priority of sustainable forest management for timber production. Similarly, forest-water management does not require the creation of new tools, but simply involves the application of existing sustainable forest or landscape management tools through a different lens – a water lens.  

Understanding and sharing these principles is a vital step towards mainstreaming water considerations in global forest-management methods. To learn more about forest-water management, FAO, USDA and IUFRO have jointly published ‘A guide to forest-water management', which seeks to improve the global information base on the protective functions of forests for soil and water. You can access the guide for free here: https://shorturl.at/jkAN6.