Global Trends and Outlook for Forest Resources
With a growing population, the demands placed on the World’s forest resources are likely to continue to expand. This presents forest owners and managers with many challenges although, as this chapter suggests, some trends in the future may benefit forests
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Abstract With a growing population, the demands placed on the World’s forest resources are likely to continue to expand. This presents forest owners and managers with many challenges although, as this chapter suggests, some trends in the future may benefit forests and forestry. This chapter starts by describing some recent trends in forest resources, such as trends in forest area and characteristics, forest management and use. It shows that forests are now being managed more sustainably in many respects, but that progress has been mixed in some regions and with respect to some indicators of sustainable forest management. It also shows that forests are currently managed and used for many diverse benefits and that the importance of these different benefits has changed over time. The chapter then explains how some of the main driving forces (population trends, economic growth, government policies, etc.) have led to differences in forest area, forest management and use in different parts of the World. In particular, this focuses on how these forces have affected land-use change (i.e. forest conversion) and demand for forest products and services, as well as how government policies have attempted to change these demands. The chapter concludes by describing what might happen to the driving forces in the future and how this would affect forest resources and forest management. One key message is that demographic trends (towards smaller and older rural populations) will significantly alter the processes leading to land-use change. The intensity of forest management will also have to increase in the future to meet the expanding demands for forest goods and services, but it is unclear how this can be done for anything other than wood production. Finally, it describes how forestry policies and
A. Whiteman (*) FAO, Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected] T. Fenning (ed.), Challenges and Opportunities for the World’s Forests in the 21st Century, Forestry Sciences 81, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7076-8_8, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
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institutions might adapt to these changes if they are to meet the rising expectations and continue to support sustainability in the sector.
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Introduction
The management and use of forest resources varies greatly across the World, depending on factors such as the amount and type of forests present in a country, local social and economic circumstances, history, traditions and government policies both within and outside the sector. Furthermore, forest management and use continue to evolve over time in response to changes in these external factors as well as changes in the characteristics of the resource. Forest management is also complex because forests can produce such a wide variety of goods and services. Many of these outputs can be produced simultaneously, but often there are also trade-offs between them, especially between the commercial and non-market outputs from forests. While the demands for these outputs varies between countries and over time, i
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