Forest Products
As stewards of some 30% of the world’s forests that are primarily managed to produce forest products, forest companies play a critical role in maintaining and enhancing these forests’ valuable ecosystem services, while delivering a renewable supply of wood – essential to achieving a nature-positive and net-zero economy.
Managing nature risks is key for the forest sector, as it is highly dependent on thriving ecosystems for its prosperity, most notably for the wood fiber that flows throughout the production process. Long time horizons dictated by the length of harvest cycles also make the sector particularly exposed to climate and nature risks, with trees planted today needing to be resilient to changing climatic conditions over years and decades.
To halt and reverse nature loss while building resilience and meeting the growing demand for forest products, the forest sector needs to evolve towards an inclusive circular bioeconomy based on wood from sustainable working forests as a renewable and recyclable material. Scaling up this alternative economic model requires deliberate and collaborative action along the full life cycle of forest products.
The sector actions serve as a guide to transform business practices and value chains and ensure the forest products sector plays its part in halting and reversing nature loss by 2030 - the mission at the heart of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
The overview and report were led by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) with the support of Terranomics and 15 WBCSD members.
Scroll down to access additional resources, including the sector overview in Bahasa Indonesian and Spanish.
Impacts on nature
Forest companies should direct their efforts towards addressing the most significant impacts on nature in their operations and value chains, namely:
Biodiversity and habitat loss
Greenhouse gas emissions
Freshwater use
Pollution
Dependencies on nature
The forest sector is dependent on ecosystem services to function and grow. Companies rely heavily on:
Wood fiber
Freshwater
Soil quality
Bio-remediation ecosystem services
Disease and pest control
Climate regulation
