Leveraging sustainable forestry to address climate emergency

Ensuring the health and vitality of forests within a sustainable framework is proving to be not only urgent but also non-negotiable, as data and scientific evidence increasingly indicate that we are treading towards a devastating climate crisis.

Experts have long sounded the alarm. More recently, a group of scientists published an article asserting that we are “hurtling toward climate chaos.” In fact, the State of the Global Climate 2025 issued by the World Meteorological Organization indicates that the classic symptoms of a feverish world are becoming more pronounced – rising mean global surface temperature, record levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, warmer and more acidic oceans, and extensive forest cover loss due to wildfires. These demonstrate that the gap between the current climate emergency and ecological disaster is closing in year by year.

Forests at the center of climate action

Forests, which cover a third of the world’s land, play a major role in averting a full-blown climate crisis. Often dubbed as the world’s climate thermostat, forests have a direct role in climate regulation by storing and sequestering carbon, which helps reduce the greenhouse effect and stabilize the global climate. This is amplified by the contributions of sustainable wood use to climate mitigation and adaptation via substitution. Forests contribute to cooling the planet by providing products that serve as nature-based alternatives to carbon-intensive products that are harmful to the environment.

Tropical forests are particularly indispensable, providing effective solutions to climate change challenges. Natural old-growth forests harbor a great amount of biomass carbon, while young, secondary and plantation forests serve as a doable option for climate mitigation given their great potential as a carbon sink and sequester. Putting the brakes on deforestation prevents biomass carbon from escaping into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, while expanding reforested areas establishes new terrestrial carbon sinks and sequesters.

This year, the celebration of World Environment Day positions Climate Action at the foreground of a vast tapestry of initiatives to protect the environment amid various threats. The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) joins the world in celebrating this day by centering the role of tropical forests in addressing climate change and reducing its impacts on ecosystems and communities.

Employing science for evidence-based forestry management

Since its establishment four decades ago, ITTO has actively supported initiatives that advance the frontiers of knowledge on the dynamics between climate change and tropical forests.

In South Kalimantan, Indonesia, ITTO partnered with the Directorate General of Forestry Planning and Environmental Governance to establish a robust information system involving wood production and carbon sequestration. 

The initiative, “Development of an Information System on the Potential of Wood and Carbon to Support Sustainable Forest Management in South Kalimantan, Indonesia,” responds to the need for a strengthened information collection system that supports sustainable forest management, ensuring that forest managers and policymakers have reliable access to updated information on various relevant parameters, including forest cover change, carbon stock, and wood production. This provides a crucial evidence-based decision-support system and a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to improve existing and establish new forest-based industries in South Kalimantan, where the wood products industry is a significant driver of the local economy.

ITTO will also support an upcoming project focusing on sub-deciduous tropical forests in Nayarit, Mexico. Each year, Mexico loses 208,850 hectares of its 66.6 million hectares of forest land, leading to biodiversity loss, increased vulnerability to climate change, and freshwater shortage. The project, implemented by the National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural, and Livestock Research in collaboration with Mexico’s National Forestry Commission, aims to generate knowledge on the structure of Nayarit’s sub-deciduous tropical forests and their carbon sequestration potential, crucial for its sustainable management and conservation.

Local communities propel climate action

Another initiative supported by ITTO is the “Conserve and increase the carbon of secondary forests in the North of Costa Rica.” Implemented in areas within Costa Rica’s Huetar Norte Region, which sees dwindling secondary forests due to agricultural expansion, the project’s goal is to develop existing secondary forests as carbon reservoirs to optimize the carbon sequestration services they provide.

The project primarily aims to develop a management model aligned with this goal while engaging local communities in sustainable forest management by creating pilot farms where stakeholders can implement secondary forest management themselves.

Apart from timber and wood products, ITTO fosters the sustainable utilization of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to promote sustainable bioeconomies, reduce extraction pressure on forests, and provide viable livelihood opportunities for forest-dependent communities.

In the Philippines, for instance, ITTO supported the “Sustainable Utilization and Marketing of Selected Non-Timber Forest Products to Support the Handicraft Industry and the Development of Rural Communities” project, which generated valuable information on the availability, extraction intensity, and regenerative growth of identified NTFPs, as well as pertinent processing and marketing information, in the provinces of Quezon and Camarines Norte. The project, implemented by the Forest Products Research and Development Institute and the Federation of Philippine Crafts Fair Traders, Inc., also organized skills development activities to increase the capacities and productivity of NTFP extractors and handicraft producers. Such efforts were also implemented in other ITTO member countries.

ITTO collaborates with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Cambodia to implement a project to build community resilience to the impacts of climate change through community forest landscape restoration. The initiative shall employ participatory forest governance and forest landscape restoration mechanisms to combat forest degradation and implement appropriate interventions in the Kratie and Mondulkiri Provinces in Cambodia. Such efforts need to be replicated urgently across several tropical regions.

Glimpse of a sustainable, climate-proof future

While there are plenty of indications that the world is rushing headfirst into a climate disaster, significant progress in addressing the climate emergency offers some glimmer of hope. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, through its Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025, reported an increase in forest carbon stock from 2000 to 2025 primarily due to the expansion of forest areas in Asia and Europe. Moreover, the Global Forest Goals Report 2026 has also indicated that forests have significantly grown more resilient and adaptive to natural disasters and climate change impacts. The world’s concerted efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change played no small part in achieving and maintaining this considerable victory.

“Forests will continue to occupy a significant role in the world’s quest to ensure adaptability and resilience in a changing climate,” said Ms Sheam Satkuru, ITTO Executive Director. “As long as we advocate for its sustainable management and take action to conserve these precious resources with the active participation of relevant stakeholders, forests have the potential to enhance their capacity to offer a potent suite of solutions to our climate woes.”