1. The Green Economy and the
Forestry Sector: Future Direction
Dr Young-Woo Park
Regional Director
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP)
05 June 2012 (World Environment Day)
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2. “If you do not change direction, you
may end up where you are heading.”
Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher (604-531 B.C.)
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3. Why Green Economy?
• Recent attention on the green economy concept has been aided by
widespread disillusionment with our prevailing economic paradigm
where material wealth is delivered at the expense of growing
environmental risks, ecological scarcities and social disparities.
• There is an urgent need to transition to a new paradigm.
• As a result, the last three years have seen the idea of a “green
economy” float from debates by environmental economics specialist
into the mainstream of policy discourse.
• The “Rio+20” agenda has adopted “green economy” as a key theme in
the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.
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4. What is the GREEN Economy
• UNEP defines a green economy as one that results in improved
human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing
environmental risks and ecological scarcities.
• It recognizes that is not either the environment or economic growth
and development, but that they go hand in hand to the benefit of both.
• A green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon,
resource efficient and socially inclusive.
• Growth in income and employment is driven by public and private
investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance
energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity
and ecosystem services.
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5. Forests in a Green Economy
• The Green Economy has also entered the broader discussion on
forests and forestry.
• Forests perform vital functions. Without them we would struggle to
survive. Forest products and services are essential to every aspect of
life. Around 1.6 billion people rely to some extent on forests for their
livelihoods.
• The value of ecosystem services from tropical forests vastly exceeds
figures showing up in national accounts. An estimated investment of
US$30 billion in fighting deforestation and degradation could provide a
return of up to US$4.5 trillion in products and services.
• It has become very clear that sustainable use pays off and business-
as-usual (BAU) costs us dearly.
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6. Biodiversity pays
Net present value of benefits from conservation and conversion
Value of US$ in 2007
Source: TEEB, 2009
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7. Where to invest in?
• Use of degraded lands for
sustainable palm oil
production
• Ecologically-friendly
agricultural and forestry
practices for smallholders
• Improved forest
management such as
reduced impact logging
• Better land-use and spatial
planning that recognizes the
importance of ecosystem
services and biodiversity
conservation
• Watershed management to reduce sedimentation and enhance navigability
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8. Forests in 2050
Comparison of BAU with Green Investment Scenario (G2)
Key Forest Sector Indicators Business As Usual (G2)
Natural Forest Area 3.36 3.64
(Billion ha)
Deforestation rate 14.9 6.66
(million ha/year)
Planted forest area 347 850
(Million ha)
Total forest area 3.71 4.49
(Billion ha)
Carbon storage in forests (Billion 431 502
tonnes)
Gross Value Added 0.9 1.04
(US$, Trillion)
Employment (Million) 25 30
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9. Main investment sources?
• REDD+, which can be seen as an investment focusing on retaining or
enhancing natural capital, and provides an opportunity to enable
countries to shift from “brown” to green development by making
investments in natural capital with a focus on forests, as well as human
capital.
• Global Environment Facility
• Capital markets that connect long-term institutional investors with the
delivery of sustainable forest and land management worldwide.
Pension funds, for example, are considering forest funds that would
invest in rain forests.
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10. What does it take?
• Reduction of excessive regulatory procedures and bureaucracy
• Strengthening of governance, especially accountability and transparency
• Raising awareness among decision makers regarding the negative
impacts of complex regulations and procedures on investment decisions
• Application of best practices in forest law enforcement and reducing
illegal activities
• Clarification and strengthening rights to land and forests, including the
potential for increasing the size and duration of forest land ownership
and/or use rights
• Avoiding arbitrary changes and providing stable investment, land-use,
land management and forestry policies, laws, procedures and approval
systems to give investors in forestry the confidence to make long-term
investments
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11. Role of community forestry
• While the needs of small-scale (including communities) and large-
scale investors are clearly not the same, most of the previous
recommendations would also provide for an enabling environment for
community forestry. Above all, all actors would benefit from clear forest
tenure arrangements and strong governance.
• Examples of initiatives indicate that a green economy in forestry is not
necessarily something new. Sustainable management of forests, forest
restoration, forest conservation, watershed management are all part of
a green economy and the role communities have played in wise forest
management and use is widely acknowledged.
• The biggest contribution that community forestry can make is probably
to social equity and poverty reduction.
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12. UNEP’s role?
UNEP’s main role is in providing advisory
services, raising awareness, research and
forming partnerships to help achieve a green
economy through the collective vision,
creativity, action and support from a broad
cross-section of society, including
governments, the private sector and
consumers.
For Green Economy success stories:
http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/SuccessStories/ForestManagementinNepal/tabid/
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13. For more: http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/
Thank you