Co-Chairs’ Summary: Dialogue on Intensively Managed Planted Forests in China

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From 3 April to 6 April, The Forests Dialogue (TFD) convened 34 international leaders from the forest products industry, NGO community, academia and government in Zhanjiang (Guangdong Province) and Beihai (Guangxi Province), China for site visits and dialogue on the future of intensively managed planted forests (IMPFs).

This dialogue and site visit was a continuation of a June 2005 TFD scoping dialogue held in Gland, Switzerland that explored management strategies and opportunities for increasing consensus and cooperation among IMPF stakeholders. For a summary of the Gland dialogue please go to www.theforestsdialogue.org/ifm.html.

One of the recommendations coming out of the Gland dialogue was to develop a series of site visit/dialogues for a group of leaders to further explore the key issues on the ground and in more depth in IMPF regions. The basic premise of this series of dialogues is to develop strategies to promote continued innovation in IMPF technology to optimize the social and environmental benefits of IMPFs while maintaining their competitive advantage and profitability. The Beihai, China dialogue was the first in this series.

The objectives were to:

  •    Continue the discussion on how best management practices for IMPFs can act as a basis to minimize conflict and support sustainable development outcomes   
  •    Raise awareness among participants about the unique issues presented by current and future development and management of IMPFs in China  
  •    Review and solicit input to the draft FAO coordinated Planted Forest Code and other best management practices in the context of their implementation in China