AVN Web Desk
UNITED NATIONS: A UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report released recently warns of the increasing vulnerabilities of the world’s forests to wildfires and pests, exacerbated by climate change, calling for innovative forestry approaches and urgent international action to address these challenges and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Emphasizing the critical role forests and trees play in agrifood systems, the report says that deforestation, especially in tropical regions, exacerbates local temperature increases and disrupts rainfall patterns, amplifying the impacts of global climate change and posing significant threats to agricultural productivity.
The report warns that wildfires have become increasingly severe and frequent, even in previously unaffected areas. In 2023 alone, wildfires emitted an estimated 6,687 megatonnes of carbon dioxide. The boreal zone, just south of the Arctic, experienced record-high fires in 2021, contributing to a quarter of total wildfire emissions, up from 10 percent previously, according to the FAO.
It stresses that climate change also increases forests’ vulnerability to invasive species as insects, pests, and diseases like the pine wood nematode threaten tree health and survival, particularly damaging native pine forests in parts of Asia. North America faces projections of severe damage from insects and disease by 2027, it adds.
The destruction of forests is critical amid record-level global demand for wood production, currently at four billion cubic meters annually. Projections suggest a potential 49 percent increase in global roundwood demand from 2020 to 2050.
Nearly six billion people rely on non-timber forest products, with 70 percent of the world’s poor dependent on wild species for essential needs, the report mentions.
To tackle these challenges, the FAO advocates for innovative solutions across technological, social, policy, institutional, and financial fronts, particularly the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for data analysis and innovative financing for forest conservation are highlighted as key innovations.
Recognizing the potential impacts of innovation, the FAO emphasizes inclusive and gender-responsive approaches to ensure equitable distribution of benefits among men, women, and youth from all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.
FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu hopes the report will catalyze evidence-based innovations in forestry, supporting FAO members and stakeholders in fostering responsible, inclusive, and essential innovations for sustainability and resilience in agrifood systems.
“I believe it will also support FAO members and other stakeholders in enabling responsible, inclusive, and essential innovation in the forest sector to strengthen sustainability and the resilience of agrifood systems for a better world and a better future for all,” he added.
