Episode 82: Forest Management with Chris Reeves (P&G) and Amy Clark Eagle (Forest Stewardship Council US)

Outline

• What is forest management?

• Why are managed forests important?

• What are the different goals forests can be managed to achieve and what are the tactics used to achieve those goals?

• Where are the details on managed forests globally?

• What are the different forest management certifications and how can they help ensure proper forest management?

• What policies are in place globally to manage forests?

• What are the leading organizations in forest management?

• How can definers/listeners engage on this topic?

• Expert Guests:

• Amy Clark Eagle, Director of Science & Certification at Forest Stewardship Council U.S. and

• Chris Reeves, P&G Scientific Communications (Family Care) & Certified Forester, P&G

What is forest management?

• Let’s first look at the term “forestry”. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines forestry as the “science and practice of establishing, managing, using, and conserving forests, trees, and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values.” Forest Management is a “branch” (LOL), of the forestry profession. 

• The US Forest Service, an agency within the USDA responsible for managing 193 million acres of public lands in the US, states that forest management helps to focus the efforts of forestry to manage vegetation, reduce any hazards, restore forest ecosystems, and maintain forest health. In other words, forest management is the combination of tactics and strategies that are used to maintain the health and productivity of forests so they can meet both our current and future needs.

• The United Nations Forum on Forests also mentions the topic of “sustainable forest management”. This is a concept with the goal of maintaining and enhancing the economic, social, and environmental values of forests. When managed well, these ecosystems can thrive from an environmental perspective, but can also be used to make money, by selling timber or crops or by offering tourist or recreation activities. 

• It is important to note here that forest management strategies vary for natural and planted forests. Different strategies are used depending on the specific needs of that ecosystem. 

• Forest management tactics are going on across the globe from temperate forests to rainforests! Although many of the examples we are discussing in this episode are based on forest management in the United States, forest management can take place in any forest! 

Why are managed forests important?

• Forests are habitats for 80% of the world’s land species. They also play a critical role in keeping water clean, mitigating pollution, and providing goods and services. Trees also help prevent soil erosion and reduce the risks of flooding and support healthy wildlife populations.

• In fact, trees are some of the oldest and most proven methods of carbon capture as they use the process of photosynthesis to remove carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen. Forests store carbon really well in trees and within the soil and thus, forests can help fight climate change. Globally forests are the second-largest natural storage of carbon, with oceans being the first.

• In fact, the US Forest Service estimates that America’s forests sequester over 800 million tons of carbon each year! This is around 12% of the United States’ annual emissions, so trees and forests can play a pretty big role here as a large carbon sink. 

• Removing carbon this way is a nature-based carbon removal solution, which means that carbon is stored into something naturally occurring like trees or wetlands.

• If you’re interested in learning more about both natural and technological carbon removal strategies, check out Episode 80: Carbon Removal.

• In addition to climate benefits, managed forests are critical habitat for a variety of species. According to the World Wildlife Fund, forests are home to most of the world's terrestrial biodiversity! Tropical rainforests specifically, are home to more species than any other terrestrial habitat. A single acre of rainforest may be home to thousands of species.

• Studies have shown that managed forests can provide higher quality habitat for wildlife than unmanaged forests, and that forests that are managed to protect wildlife can also produce quality timber. 

What are the different goals forests can be managed to achieve and what are the tactics used to achieve those goals?

• Forests are used for a variety of different uses. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international non-profit dedicated to sustainable forestry, outlines the three main reasons that forests are managed globally: environmental benefit, economic benefit, and social benefit. As you may expect, it is often the case that forests are managed for a combination of these reasons. However, it is important for forest managers to understand the primary goals for the forest they are managing and what ecosystem services they are looking to enhance through their management. Different management tactics are utilized for success depending on the “why”. So let’s dig into these three key areas of forest management and the goals and tactics used within each.

• First, let’s talk environmental benefit. Often called ecological forest management, this focuses on the conservation and protection of forests for the future. Often when this is the focus of the management strategy, the activities that take place on the land are managed to ensure biodiversity and that species are safe from extinction. 

• By promoting biodiversity, healthy forests can be more resilient and wildlife populations have a better chance to survive and thrive.

• Many forest landowners work to improve forest health by thinning and harvesting trees to improve wildlife habitat. By removing older, diseased and insect infected trees, stronger trees are able to grow and a healthier ecosystem results.

• In recent years, forests have been victim to the increase of pests and pathogens. This, along with the challenges that climate change poses, means that forests can be vulnerable to attack and severely limited in productivity.  Because of this, when forest managers are working for environmental benefit, one tactic they use is to replace current trees with disease-resistant varieties to improve the ecosystem and create an environment where local birds, insects, and mammals can thrive and pests are minimal. 

• Further, as we mentioned, forest management can help trees to sequester more carbon as a natural carbon sink. The density of trees and their age play a big role in how much carbon can be captured and stored. One way to do this is by enhancing the diversity of tree species. Then the different trees occupy different ecological niches, resulting in more efficient resource use and greater carbon sequestration.

• Next is economic benefit. Many forests are managed to supply products for human use and generate revenue. The World Bank says that the forest sector employs 33 million people across the globe. These jobs include working in mills and factories, harvesting in the fields, and delivering the raw materials, forests provide job opportunities to millions. The American Forest and Paper Association estimates that within the U.S., the forest products industry employs about 950,000 people and is within the top 10 manufacturing sector employers in over 40 states. Further, it is estimated that the industry accounts for 4% of the total manufacturing GDP within the US, producing nearly $300 billion in products such as timber, fiber, and energy that supplement the broader economy.

• Managing a forest for economic benefit often means working to ensure a constant supply of forest products that are eventually sold off as lumber or paper.

• One environmental & economical aspect of managed forests that often goes unnoticed is that these forests can reduce fire risk. Through controlled burns and selective thinning, forest management can minimize the buildup of flammable undergrowth. This lowers the risk of catastrophic wildfires that damage homes, infrastructure, and ecosystems, ultimately minimizing the economic ramifications of wildfires.

• And last but not least, forests across the globe are often managed for social benefits. Many around the world depend on forests for social and cultural reasons, especially the Indigenous and local communities who call these lands home. In fact, across the world, around 300 million people live in and around forests and 1.6 billion people in rural areas depend directly on forests, using their resources for food, shelter, fuel, medicine, and most importantly, their livelihoods. 

• Further, forests also provide social goods like recreation, tourism, and educational opportunities. These activities, while also socially good, also tie into the economic benefits of forests by providing jobs and income for forest owners and those working within the tourism and educational industries.

• Regarding food from forests, a stat form the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, PEFC, states that forest-based fishing and hunting provides fun recreation for many, as well as more than 20% of household protein requirements in developing countries. 

Where are the details on managed forests globally?

• Forests cover one third of land globally! That is a little over 4 billion hectares of land. More than half of the world’s forests by size are found within five countries: Russia, Brazil, Canada, United States, and China. 

• The United Nations 2020 ‘The State of the World’s Forests’ report promisingly details that the management of the world’s forests is improving. The area of forest under long-term management plans has increased significantly in the past 30 years to an estimated 2.05 billion hectares in 2020, equivalent to 54 percent of the global forest area.

• It is hard to quantify exactly the number of individual managed forests or even who owns many of the forests globally. Information from the National Association of State Foresters showed that of the over 800 million acres of forest land in the United States, 60% was owned by private landowners while 30% of the lands in the US are owned and managed by the federal government and the remaining 10% is owned and managed by state/local governments.

• Of the 60% of forest land that is owned privately, there are more than 10 million private landowners in the US. Much of this forest land is owned at the family and individual level and in areas that are smaller than 25 acres. While forest management practices are occurring on many of these lands, a 2021 National Woodland Owner Survey found that for forests owned by non-private interests over 10 acres, only 11% have written forest management plans and only 18% of their owners have received advice from a forest resource professional. Further, based on the survey, 25% of these landowners have never conducted any kind of management on their land.

• However, for the federally owned lands in the US, the majority are managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the National Forest System or by the Bureau of Land Management.  These two organizations manage most of their lands under what is called “multiple use and sustained yield statutory missions”.  Multiple use management means considering the relative values of the various resources and the combination of uses that best meets the needs of the American people. These uses can include everything from livestock grazing to energy and mineral development to recreation to timber production or can be used as watershed protection; wildlife and fish habitat, or as natural scenic, historic, or scientific uses. 

• Check out episode #8 for more on public land use.

What are the different forest management certifications and how can they help ensure proper forest management?

• Forest certification programs took hold during the 1990s amid widespread deforestation and mismanagement of global forests. There are many forest certification agencies that work to verify the sustainable forest management practices of landowners, management companies, product manufacturers, and other organizations in the forest supply chain. These certifications help to assess and verify that the forest, or forest products, are managed in a sustainable way and meet specific criteria or performance indicators.

• According to research from North Carolina State University, there are four main types of forest certification: forest management, chain of custody, group certification, and fiber sourcing standard certification. We’ll dive into those here briefly and give examples of these certifications that you may have heard or seen on your product. 

• Let’s first look at a more common type of certification, forest management certification. This evaluates the management of a specific piece of forest land to the assigned standard. The certification program verifies the sustainable management practices of individual pieces of forest land.

• Some organizations that offer forest management certification include American Tree Farm System (ATFS), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

• The FSC for example offers their forest management certification to confirm that areas of forest land are being managed in line with the established FSC principles and criteria. The forest is then audited to those standards and once verified to adhere to the principles and policies, receive a certification.

• Next let’s look at chain of custody certification. This is a certification that follows the wood from managed forest all the way to the finished product. Those within the entire value chain of forest products can obtain this certification, not just the individual forests themselves. So the mills, manufacturers, and distributors who use or sell the certified wood can benefit from this certification. Chain of custody certifications help consumers buy products that are from well-managed forests, and also help forest managers sell verified products. 

• This type of certification is what you see on the product label when buying a product that is FSC or SFI certified. So if you’re ever wondering what that means, it means that there is certifiable evidence that the wood, paper, or packaging products are made with raw materials from certified sources and are manufactured from forests with more sustainable forest management practices. This label is not required to be on any consumer packages, but is just there as information about the source of your paper products.

• Let’s move now to the next certification type, group certification. This certification type allows for groups of individual forest owners, under the same forest management team, to apply for certification together. The forest management team, often an organization contracted by these individual landowners, agree to a set of forest management practices that will apply to all of the individual lands they own. The management organization then applies as a group to be either Forest Management or Chain of Custody certified.

• Group certifications greatly reduce the cost and the time of certification for individual landowners. Programs like these allow for smaller landowners to gain certification that they likely would not pursue on their own since group certification is easier and cheaper.

• However, the final certificate is held by the forest management organization, not the individual landowners, which could pose some issues if they change or opt out of forest management.

• And lastly let’s look at fiber sourcing standards. These certifications are mainly for those who are purchasing wood or fiber products, but not managing the forests on their own. The aim of these programs is to provide confidence that the raw materials in the supply chain of those purchasing come from responsible sources, even if the specific forest land is not managed. 

• Since about 90% of the world’s forest are uncertified, fiber sourcing standards seek to empower those buying from uncertified forest lands to certify what they purchase by working with their suppliers to assess key topics like biodiversity, water quality, and forest engagement techniques. This allows for the costs of certification to be transferred from forest landowners to those that are purchasing from them, while also increasing the positive, more sustainable practices on their lands.

• Each of these certifications have different processes, and it is really up to the landowner or manager to determine which, if any, certifications schemes are best for the lands they are managing. Forest managers not only have to meet the criteria for certification, but many of these certification programs come with associated costs as well as the time associated with gathering information and completing verification audits. 

• In fact, it is because of this that many forest landowners do not pursue certification programs. And often it is not because they don’t comply with the standards of certification, but due to the expenses involved in earning and maintaining these certifications that often come with expensive third-party independent auditing and annual fees. 

What policies are in place globally to manage forests?

• Specific policies vary by county, however there is a global effort towards more sustainable forest management. 

• In the United States, The National Forest Management Act of 1976 put in place a system for federally managed, public lands. This legislation was passed to protect national forests from destruction and excessive clear cutting. Within the National Forest Management Act, there are provisions to ensure that there are multiple uses of forest lands, not just for timber in an effort to protect the biodiversity of national forests. In addition, the plan establishes that there must be systematic planning for forest management on all federally owned lands. This means that all federal forest lands must be assessed and have a written resource development plan. 

• This regulation was expanded in 2012, when the 2012 Planning Rule was passed. This rule established a process for creating and revising the plans that are required by the National Forest Act. This Planning Rule recognizes that plans need to be flexible and adaptive and in line with the best available science, and aims to help incorporate a more modern lens into how we manage our federally owned forests.

• Looking globally, while not a policy, the United Nations Forum on Forest was established in 2000 with the main objective to promote “… the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests and to strengthen long-term political commitment to this end…”

• Some more UN forest action is that in April 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted the first ever UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030. It has six Global Forest Goals and 26 associated targets to be achieved by 2030.

• We also found of interest examples of successful policies using multi-stakeholder forums.

• In British Columbia, they have community forest agreements (CFA). A CFA is an area-based forest license managed by a local government, community group, First Nation or combination of local governments, First Nations and community groups, for the benefit of the entire community. At its core, community forestry is about local control over the benefits offered by local forests. Since the development of the CFA tenure in 1998, BC has issued 60 CFAs.

• Another example is in Guatemala. It has established forest policy roundtables for subnational dialogue among representatives of the central government, local authorities, nongovernmental and civil-society organizations, and private companies involved in the production, conservation, protection and use of forest resources.

• Consider how this worked for the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala after it was created in 1990. It contains more than two million hectares of forest protected. The authorities granted community forest concessions for communities to as a group manage the resources sustainably. Nowadays, nine communities manage the concessions and their FSC-certification, representing more than 350,000 hectares of forest. Notably, the community managed areas have a near-zero deforestation rate while adjacent areas suffer some of the highest deforestation rates in the Americas.

What are the leading organizations in forest management?

• We have already touched on many of the organizations who are leading the way towards more sustainable forest management. Government agencies like US Forest Service manages federally owned public lands, and forest certification organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) are two of the leading forest certification organizations in the world who set standards and certify forests that meet those standards. 

• There are a few non-profit and international organizations that are leading the way towards more sustainable forest management. While we can’t go into all of them, here are a few highlights of organizations in the space.

• The Society of American Foresters, or SAF, is a professional organization working to advance the sustainable management of forest resources. The organization uses science, technology, and education within their 10,000 member community to ensure the continued “health, integrity, and use of forests to benefit society in perpetuity”.  

• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) runs a Forestry Programme that seeks to “restore forests, improve the lives of forest-dependent people, and support countries to manage their forests in a sustainable way.”

• The FAO has online a Sustainable Forest Management Toolbox with tools, best practices, and case studies to help forest managers and owners, policymakers, and students and other stakeholders implement sustainable forest management.

• Most recently, the FAO announced in April 2024 a $16 million project funded by the European Union to help Uganda manage its forests more sustainably. Unfortunately, it needs it since the country was one-quarter forest in 1990 and was only 13% forest in 2017. The project seeks to increase the quality and value of planted forests by promoting better practices and more efficient processing facilities, which, in turn, will add more value to raw wood material.

• Some companies are leading the way as well with investments in forest management upstream of their operations.

• One example is IKEA, which in 2020 announced it would invest 100 million Euros to develop and implement methods for removing carbon from the atmosphere through projects connected to reforestation, restoration of degraded forests and better forest management practices. One of its first focus areas was Vietnam where smallholders and communities, including minority ethnic groups, manage roughly 65% of Vietnam’s plantation forests. IKEA is helping them to implement practices to be more productive and store more carbon.

• And lastly, the Rainforest Alliance, is an international non-profit working at “the intersection of business, agriculture, and forests to make responsible business the new normal”.

• It focuses on regenerative agriculture, integrated community forest management, helping forest communities build sustainable enterprises, responsible business from forest to shelf, influencing policy, and reforestation.

How can definers/listeners engage on this topic?

• Even if you’re not a forester, landowner, or an expert, there are a few things that you can do.. 

• First, you can support sustainable forestry. When purchasing nature-based products, look for products with certifications from the FSC or SFI. As we mentioned, these products have various certifications that work to ensure that forests are managed responsibly. 

• In addition, you can also work to reduce your paper consumption. While paper products can be made sustainably via forest management, reducing overall consumption lessens pressure on forests. Explore paperless billing options, reuse paper where possible, and consider digital alternatives for communication when you can. And of course, you should also be recycling the paper you do have once you’re done with it!

• Lastly, you can get involved with local conservation and tree planting groups in your area. There’s a pretty good chance that you live near a forest. Many of these have educational or conservation events where you can get direct interaction with the forests in your local community. Some forests even have collaborative “citizen science” programs that allow volunteers to collect data on trees and wildlife in the area. This information is then used to inform forest management decisions. 

• We’ll link in the show notes a few places you can find these citizen science projects from the US Forest Service and Citizen Science. gov.