$10B lost to illegal logging yearly – World Bank forum

Worldwide losses to illegal logging reached $10 billion annually in revenues and assets, based on data revealed in a two-day forum held in Washington, USA. The Forest Investment Forum also resulted in a pledge to increase responsible forest investments in developing countries and economies-in-transition as well as a global call for an end to illegal logging. The forum also estimated that some 1.6 billion people worldwide depend on forests for their livelihoods, and another 60 million indigenous peoples depend on forests for their subsistence. Forest resources also represent a survival base for as many as 200-300 million small farmers around the world. A statement issued by the sponsoring organizations – the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Forest Trends, Program on Forests (PROFOR), the World Bank, and the International Finance Corp. (IFC) – emphasized that this gathering, which included leaders of multinational forest companies, governments, ministries, international development and financial institutions, and environmental and civil society organizations was a crucial platform to move ahead a sustainability agenda for the forest sector.

World Bank, vice president for sustainable development Ian Johnson said that the world must act now to implement sustainable forest management, as forests are fundamental in the fight against poverty and the maintenance of biodiversity. "Inaction is not an option," WBCSD chief operating officer Odd Gullberg. "Population growth, rising standards of living, and industrialization are placing pressure on forest products and services. Investment in forestry, which increases each year, can support responsible forestry if businesses, governments, financial institutions, and NGOs (non-government organizations) work together." Forests worldwide harbor 90 percent of land-based biodiversity, including numerous threatened and endangered plant and animal species. Forests provide valuable goods like timber and medicines, and important services such as regulating climate change by storing carbon and filtering drinking water. Despite their importance, many of the world’s richest forests are rapidly disappearing.

There is a need to address issues, such as the identification and protection of forests that are a high priority for biodiversity conservation; protection of the rights and resource interests of forest-dependent people; certification and other systems of independent verification of forest management performance; and the establishment and management of forest and agricultural tree-crop plantations.

The importance of forest environmental services was recognized, and there was considerable discussion of problems and options for developing markets for these services and some recent examples of success and failures in this area.

This Forum has focused on opportunities and challenges to private sector investments and on how the Forum sponsors can help to support responsible investments. However, it is clearly recognized that as this collaborative dialogue moves to the country level, it will be crucial to involve both local communities and governments to ensure that the initiatives being discussed contribute to national forest development plans.

The Forest Investment Forum brought together nearly 150 senior executives of domestic and multinational forest product companies, private and public sector financial institutions, and leading conservation agencies around the world.