Industrialisation drive should not put in danger our forests

The spread of agricultural revolution depended on the conversion of forests into cultivable land.

The continuing contributions of forests to global biodiversity, to the fertility of agricultural lands, and to the welfare of those who depend on them mean that forests are immensely valuable for sustainability.

The massive economic contributions forests continue to make to human livelihoods, economic development, and national incomes are the main focus of this analysis.

In addition to their direct, cash and non‐cash economic contributions, forests also provide substantial levels of employment. More than 10 million people are employed in forest sector activities in the formal sector. In the informal sector of small and medium forest enterprises, another 15‐20 million people may be employed.

Once again, however, the lack of systematic data makes it near impossible to estimate closely how many people are employed in the forest sector.

Estimates of the number of people deriving direct and indirect benefits from forests – in the form of employment, forest products, and direct or indirect contributions to livelihoods and incomes – range between 1 billion ‐ 1.2 billion dollars worldwide.

And unlike most other sectors, forests also contribute massively to the ecosystems services that humans value, even if these are not traded or even if it is difficult to put an economic figure on that value.

Different economic valuation strategies peg the economic value of ecosystem services from forests in the neighbourhood of additional billions of dollars.

The absence of aggregated data on the economic contributions related to non timber forest products and their value, and the lack of information systems that can incorporate such data systematically are major bottlenecks in a better understanding of forest sector contributions.

They also represent a deficiency when it comes to improved management so as to enhance the total economic contributions of forests.

Indeed, the effective absence of information on the value of such benefits from forests has meant an overemphasis in forest governance systems on managing forests for products that are highly visible, formally recognized, and with cash market value.

This imbalance means that official management systems are ill‐equipped to improve the larger economic benefits forests provide through non‐cash valued products and services.

Consequently, investments in the forest sector remain in imbalance, and aimed mainly at capturing benefits that are visible and based on monetary exchanges.

It is necessary to recognize and appropriately value the outstanding economic contributions of forests to human welfare and development.

But the pattern of change in such contributions should be a major cause of concern to forest professionals and others interested in forests – whether that interest is related to ecological sustainability, ecosystem services, or economic benefits.

A substantial reason forests have become less prominent economically is the relatively isolated nature of forestry agencies and services, including the limited exchanges between professionals in the forest and other sectors.