vision for world forests: results from the Council on Foreign Relations study

• Published in: Journal of sustainable forestry 2006-04, Vol.21 (4), p.113-135
• Main Author: Victor, D.G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ecological restoration; environmental protection; farmers; forest certification; forest economics; forest plantations; forest policy; forest productivity; forest yields; forests; international policy; international policy and programs; land use; natural resource management; plantations; reforestation; Restoration
• ISSN: 1054-9811; 1540-756X
• DOI: 10.1300/J091v21n04_08

The thesis of this paper centers on the premise that the twentieth century witnessed the start of a "Great Restoration" of the world's forests. Efficient farmers and foresters are learning to spare forestland by growing more food and fiber in ever-smaller areas. Meanwhile, increased use of metals, plastics, and electricity has eased the need for timber. The conventional wisdom, the "Skinhead Earth" scenario, holds that as much as 200 million hectares of forest will be lost in the next decades as agriculture extends to feed larger and richer populations. Current trends, however, suggest not balding but regrowth. Of course, industry has already taken big steps along the restoration path by sowing intensively managed "plantation" forests that act as wood farms. With economics already favoring intensive production, foresters should be able to lift the average world yield in lumbered forests to 5 cubic meters per hectare by 2050. The problem is the absence of a clear and widely shared goal to guide policy. A bottom-up process is needed because no single set of policy instruments is appropriate to all settings. For the Great Restoration to succeed, farmers, foresters, and environmentalists must recognize their common interest in high-yield production.