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

The Forests Dialogue (TFD) convened 22 international leaders from the forest products industry, NGOs and civil society, and forest owners at the Headquarters of the World Conservation Union -IUCN for a scoping dialogue to discuss the environmental, social, and economic factors critical to the management of intensively managed planted forests (plantations).

The shift from natural forest management to intensively managed planted forests (IMPFs) is one of the most pressing issues facing those concerned with sustainable forestry today. IMPFs contribute one-third of the world’s industrial wood supply, with technological change and increasing global demand for forest products projected to favor IMPFs over alternative forest resources in the future.

While IMPFs have significantly increased the efficiency of timber production and reduced costs per unit volume, they have also a historic reputation for imposing additional environmental and social costs, particularly on local communities.The current challenge is to optimise the future economic, social and environmental contributions from IMPFs while mitigating associated negative impacts.

This dialogue was the first in a proposed series of multi-stakeholder meetings to explore management strategies and provide greater clarity on the requirements for increasing consensus and future cooperation between all stakeholders.