Forests as vital as food: international conference on forest governance opens

Forests should be viewed in the same way as food security because they are vital for ensuring human livelihood needs and security as well as planetary well-being, according to ITTO Executive Director, Dr Gerhard Dieterle. “It is urgent, therefore, to develop sustainable, innovative and efficient ways to provide wood and services to the world’s growing population,” he said. Among other things, this requires an adequate system of forest governance and monitoring.

Dr Dieterle made these remarks in his keynote address at the Tokyo International Conference on Forest Governance Initiative, which commenced today with the aim of tackling illegal logging in the tropics through satellite technologies and improved governance.