How much forest do we need? What types of forests do we need? Where should they be located? These are questions that need to be addressed objectively, taking into account human resources, produced assets, and natural capital.
In order for different international organizations to make a solid contribution to forestry policy-setting and to the future of society there is a need for critical thinking on which roles the international organizations should play in this process and how they should contribute to the policy-setting.
Thus, the environment is only part of the problem. The other parts are jobs, the quality of life, and so on and they are all connected at the same points: the governance of the resources.
Environmental issues in forestry have also become a springboard to broader social and political concerns often rarely considered in any other sector. This may be a positive development if we take into account certain events:
- in 1978 the World Forestry Congress stated that “forests are for the people"
- The World Bank concluded that one of the purposes of the Earth Summit in Rio was to give people the right to different environmental functions of the earth. Some have defined sustainable forestry to mean “all things to all people
- Cousteau says the goal of civilization is to ensure to all a certain “quality of life,” adjoined by a fundamental "joy of living"
In order for different international organizations to make a solid contribution to forestry policy-setting and to the future of society there is a need for critical thinking on which roles the international organizations should play in this process and how they should contribute to the policy-setting.
