Earlier this month, the global forestry advisory body to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) released details on how sustainable forest management and forest products are well-positioned to drive a healthy, green and inclusive recovery as the world continues to face serious challenges related to COVID-19. In its statement, the Advisory Committee of Sustainable Forest-based Industries (ACSFI) referenced the essential role that forestry and forest products have played during the pandemic – and how they can help drive much-needed economic recovery.

ACSFI is a statutory body that guides FAO on issues concerning the sustainable consumption and production of forest products. It also provides a forum for dialogue between FAO and the private sector, with a view to identifying strategic actions that promote sustainable forest management. The United States and Canada are represented on the committee by American Forest and Paper Association President and CEO Heidi Brock and Forest Products Association of Canada CEO Derek Nighbor, respectively.

The ACSFI statement highlights that during the pandemic, forest products have played a crucial role in keeping people safe and healthy by providing personal protective equipment and other supplies and services, including hygiene and sanitary products, biomass for heating, ethanol for sanitizer, respirator paper, and packaging for food and other goods. In order to continue the uninterrupted supply of these products, the paper and forest products sector has been appropriately recognized in many parts of the world, including the United States and Canada, as an essential service.

As policy makers work to enable sustainable approaches to COVID-19 recovery and support industries that can help ensure a better future, the ACSFI advises that sustainable forest-based industries provide:

• Long-term sustainable management of precious forest resources. We are long-term stewards of the forest and aim to balance various demands to maximize societal benefit. In the long term, active sustainable forest management increases the forest resources available and thus forms the foundation of every other benefit;
• Livelihoods and green jobs, in particular in rural areas;
  Health and hygiene products that are essential both in the front line fight to combat the virus and in keeping people healthy and safe, and will enable governments to open economies while we learn how to live with the virus until a vaccine is found;
• Biodegradable, reusable, and recyclable paper-based packaging that is more environmentally friendly than single-use plastics and helps to safely deliver important products in demand around the world;
• Support for our move to a lower fossil carbon-economy. A wide range of harvested wood products, such as those required to build houses that store carbon and substitute for more energy-intensive materials;
• Promote the use of sustainably sourced wood in construction and wood products to improve life quality and health. Wood used in homes, workplace and in public buildings improves indoor air quality, and wood’s natural warmth and comfort produce calming, stress reducing effects;
• Crucial support for sustainable food systems through the production of wood energy and wild foods, often collected in forests by forest-based communities;
• An opportunity to use what would otherwise be wood waste and turn it into a critical component of a functioning sustainable circular bioeconomy;
• The sustainable provision of wood and other ecosystem services related for example to carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation, biodiversity and clean water;
• Tangible contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Global Forest Goals and Targets of the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2030;
• Industries at all scales that safeguards biodiversity; and
• A valuable amenity for recreation and recuperation and support for mental health and well-being.

The paper and forest products industry and our workers across North America continue to embrace this call to action by delivering quality products with health and environmental benefits, practical solutions to lower our carbon footprint and family-supporting jobs for our people. The ACSFI global statement confirms that we have opportunities to do even more.

You can read the full ACSFI statement here.