Logging operations in Northwest British Columbia, Canada (Photo by John Innes)
Scientists, practitioners and decision-makers from around the world meet in Vancouver, Canada from 27 to 30 August 2013 to discuss the implications of globalization on forests and their management.
PDF of Press Release for download
(Vancouver/Vienna, 27 August 2013) Globalization is changing forests and the forest sector. Increases in international trade and investments have altered the global business environment for forestry. The growing world population moving towards nine billion by 2050, economic growth, rising resources demand and increasing environmental concerns are other drivers fostering transformation in forestry and the management of forests. New players enter the global market, and the bio-economy –– the production of ‘green’ products from renewable resources –– is gaining weight. From 27 to 30 August 2013, more than 100 representatives from research, industry and government will discuss how global trends influence forest resources, and how new opportunities for forest entrepreneurs and a more resource efficient society can be harnessed. The Conference has been organized by the University of British Columbia (UBC), Faculty of Forestry, on behalf of the Task Force “Resources for the Future” of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).
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XXIV IUFRO World Congress
“Sustaining Forests, Sustaining People: The Role of Research”
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA: October 5-11, 2014
http://www.iufro2014.com/ – http://www.iufro.org/events/congresses/2014/
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
PDFs for download:
Call for Abstracts – Llamado para enviar resúmenes – Appel à la soumission de résumés
Description of Congress Themes and Sessions
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Wildfire projected to spread like, well, wildfire
PDF for download
Boreal wildfire, Saskatchewan, Canada (Photo by Bill de Groot, Natural Resources Canada – Canadian Forest Service)
A recently published study: Global Wildland Fire Season Severity in the 21st Century, indicates that in coming decades, conventional approaches to wildfire management may no longer be effective.
It appears in a Forest Ecology and Management journal special issue entitled The Mega-fire reality, published by Elsevier. The study is a first global review that shows the extent of the increasing length of the fire season and the increasing fire weather severity.
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In addition to the original Spanish version of the Congress resolutions, an adapted translation into English has now been released.
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The Third IUFRO Latin American Congress under the theme of “Forests, Competitiveness and Sustainable Landscapes” held in San José, Costa Rica, from 12-15 June 2013, was an extraordinary experience as it brought together a unique range of actors from the natural resources sector of Latin America and provided an ideal platform for intensive discussion and exchange of experiences.
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(Edited translation of press release)
Find the Spanish release written by Karla Salazar Leiva, CATIE Communications, at:
http://web.catie.ac.cr/iufrolat/IufroLat_prensa.htm
On 14 June, the Third IUFRO Latin American Congress (IUFROLAT 2013), one of the largest forest research events in Latin America, came to a close.
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Hans Grosse Werner (Photo courtesy of INFOR)
Results of a stable state policy in support of forests: the case of Chile
Friday, 14 June 2013At the beginning of his speech Hans Grosse Werner congratulated the congress organizers on this splendid event and underlined that this congress will certainly have increased the visibility of IUFRO in Latin America.
The focus of the presentation was on the development of forest cover and forest legislation and institutions in Chile with particular emphasis on forest plantations, production and exports, progress made and pending tasks for the future.
Grosse gave an overview of Chilean forest history from prehistoric times to colonialism and the dramatic loss of forest cover mainly due to mining activities in the 19th century, and important steps in implementing regulative legislation in the 20th century.
“Thanks to the policies and laws that were introduced between 1912 and 2011, about 30% of the native forest could be recovered and 2.6 million ha of plantation forests could be added so that the overall forest cover in Chile eventually amounts to 16 million ha today”, said Grosse.
These legislative instruments relate mainly to the introduction of inventories, reforestation programmes, management plans, conservation areas and the development of forest curricula. However, the establishment of institutions to implement and control these regulations and ensure sustainability lagged somewhat behind. The Chilean forest institute INFOR and the national forest corporation CONAF were only founded in 1961 and 1973, respectively. A Ministry for the Environment was set up in 2010.
Yet, despite the progress made, there are still challenges to be overcome. One of these, says Grosse in conclusion, is the strengthening of the small and medium-sized forest-related enterprises. There are incentive programmes in place, but more needs to be done.
This keynote address was the final one in a series of high-level keynote speeches presented in the course of the 3rd IUFRO Latin American Congress.
Impacts of logging on carbon storage and biodiversity in tropical production forests of Latin America
Moderator: Plinio Sist, CIRAD-ES, France
Friday, 14 June 2013, 8:00-10:00 (Chirripó)
Find more information on the IUFRO Task Force on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at:
www.iufro.org/science/task-forces/biodiversity-ecosystem-services/
The session addressed the very important issue of the trade-offs between biomass harvest, carbon storage and biodiversity. Biomass harvest is negatively correlated with biomass storage and, in most cases, with biodiversity.
A key finding of the first presentation, which dealt with a permanent plot experiment in the Amazon, is that logging intensity affects biomass recovery rate and period. The study determined that increased logging intensity is ensued by increased recovery rate, but increases the recovery period.
Another presentation highlighted the effects of logging after 30 years on tree diameter, timber species and floristic diversity. Floristic diversity had recovered to the original state. Conversely, diameter distribution was less heterogeneous and tree species composition had shifted to pioneer and other light demanding species.
The role of individual big trees was also highlighted in a presentation. The study conducted in Pará, Amazon, found that selective logging caused a net biomass storage decrease. Moreover, selective logging creates instability in stands, which results in elevated natural mortality of individual big trees, even 8 years subsequent to logging.
Another presentation emphasised the role of disturbance regimes, showing data that El Nino decreased standing biomass more than logging; where mature stands suffered more damage than newly logged stands. Emphasis was placed on the importance of rotation cycles, as the risk of devastating disturbance regimes increased with increasing rotation periods.
Presentations in this session:
Is Tropical Forest Conservation through silviculture possible? The contribution of Tropical Production Forest Observatory Sentinel Landscape. (Plinio Sist, CIRAD-ES, France)
Thirty years after logging: Three species dynamics in the Tapajos National Forest, Eastern Amazon. (Ademir Ruschel, Embrapa Amazonia Oriental, Brazil
20 years forest dynamics study case in the Embrapa Acre Forest in Acre State, Brazilian Western Amazon. (Marcus d’Olivera)
La dinámica a largo plazo de la diversidad taxonómica y functional de especies leñosas en bosques lluviosos tropicales aprovechados y con tratamiento silvicultural en Costa Rica. (Bryan Finegan, CATIE, Costa Rica)
Post-logging biomass recovery: a pan-tropical analysis (J Putz, Alexander Shenkin)
Education in the Field of Forestry
Moderator: Hans Heinimann, Coordinator IUFRO Division 3, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Friday, 14 June 2013, 8:00-10:00 (Santa Rosa 2)
Find more information on the IUFRO Task Force of Education in Forest Science at:
www.iufro.org/science/task-forces/education-forest-science/
In this session the speakers gave examples of specific education systems and related in Latin America, Europe and the USA.
One major expectation of forest education is a shift in the focus of the general research field from “forestry” to “forests” including the transformation of the future graduates’ image. There is also evidence that linear career progressions have decreased and thus, roles and skills of forest students are required to adapt to changes.
One of the major future challenges for developing student skills is that education needs to be outcome driven; in many systems however it is still content driven. The employability and thus, the adaptation of education systems to the demands of future employers have gained far more importance.
Moreover the need for teachers to cultivate curiosity, passion and creativity in their students has been identified. General demands put forward for consideration in the process of transforming forest studies include the approach of convergent thinking and a shift away from linear thinking.
The gender and minority involvement in forest and natural management studies also requires more research. Furthermore, the accreditation of study programs and thus the comparability of degrees have been addressed by the speakers. Complex issues that involve changing demographics, structure of universities, social trends, and state budgets are among the challenges which many education institutions face.
In conclusion, the main change of education that is required is that foresters are expected to have greater competencies in many different subject areas including the fields of natural resources and landscape management.
Presentations in this session:
Education in forest science in the XXI century – expectations and reality. (Piotr Paschalis- Jakubowicz, Warsaw University, Poland)
Escuelas medias de ensenanza forestal: ¿son necesarias? (Osvaldo Encinas, ULA, Venezuela)
The European system of higher education after the Bologna reform – Dreams and realities, Hans R. Heinimann (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Trends in accredited forestry education programs in the United States. (Kevin Ohara, University of California, Berkely, USA)
Evolution and changes in forestry curricula over the last decades as exemplified by Faculty of Forestry in Krakow, Poland. (Gil Waldemar, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland)
Trends in Undergraduate Enrollments in Forestry and Related Areas of Natural Resources in the U.S. with Respect to Gender and Race/Ethnicity. (Terry Sharik, Michigan Technological University, USA)
Peter Holmgren, Director-General of the Center for International Forestry Research, presented his Keynote Address, “Forestry in a landscape approach – developing evidence-based policies”, during the final day of sessions of IUFROLAT III.
Holmgren, presented a series of questions, framing a way forward to position forestry alongside that of other land users to address multi-sector problems in a landscape approach.
In his first question, “what are the policies we need?” he defined what shapes many of the forest policies, not only in Latin America, also on a global scale. These included poverty reduction, nutrition and food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, preservation of biological diversity, and achieving green growth and equity. He outlined how forestry is related to 9 out of 12 sustainable development goals, and we need to think about where forestry can play a role in policies being politically relevant and providing positive contributions.
He transitioned by asking, “how does forestry contribute?” and presented his thoughts on how forestry is portrayed on increasingly large level. Forestry has become an environmental issue and forestry related questions are often blurred with perceptions of forests on a whole. Topics such as REDD, illegal logging, etc have brought attention to forests, yet fundamentally, they are not forestry issues. Holmgren proclaimed, “We need to take forestry out of the forest”. He explained how the adoption of a broader definition of the role of forestry, and how it applies to address key issues across a landscape, could be employed.
Expanding on this thought, Holmgren asked the question, “how is a landscape approach different?” In answer, he identified a sustainable landscape framework that focuses on objectives such as; ensuring livelihood provision, sustaining ecosystem services, securing food and non-food products, mitigating pollution and achieving resource efficiency. To do so, we need to see landscapes as a large part of sustainable development, identify multiple objectives and acknowledge that there are beneficial synergies as well as trade-offs. We need to build our work to ensure that local stakeholders are in charge and help strengthen the role of sectors to support them building a holistic landscape.
In order to provide this support, we must incorporate evidence-based approach in our science and policy interface. He answered his final question, “what is different about an evidence-based approach?”, by introducing new models that identified the importance of satisfying demand by stakeholders for information with relevant, credible forest science research.
Holmgren closed with some take home messages:
- It is time to take forestry out of the forest,
- We need a landscape approach to deal with sustainable development challenges; and
- Our plans for the future must be evidence-based.
