Implementation of the Rovaniemi Action Plan for the Forest Sector in a Green Economy

Yana Trofimova UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section

UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Forest Policy

8 October 2015

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

The Rovaniemi Action Plan was adopted on 13 December 2013

at the joint session of the UNECE Committee on Forests and the

Forest Industry and the FAO European Forestry Commission (“Metsä2013”)

in Rovaniemi, Finland

The Action Plan is not obligatory and only proposes an overall

vision

strategies and

areas of activity

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

to enhance the transition of the forest sector in the UNECE region

towards green economy

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

The Rovaniemi Action Plan contains recommendations to

Governments of member States, international organizations,

private sector and other stakeholders.

The Rovaniemi Action Plan is based on 5 pillars.

Each pillar contains objectives, possible actions and possible actors.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

A. Sustainable production and consumption of forest products

B. Low-carbon forest sector

C. Decent green jobs in the forest sector

D. Long-term provision of Forest Ecosystem Services

E. Policy development and monitoring of the forest sector in relation to green economy

5 PILLARS

A. Sustainable production and consumption of forest products

• Developing sustainable patterns of production and consumption of forest products

• Providing information to consumers on the origin of forest products

• Introducing sustainable procurement rules

• Ensuring sustainability of local supply

• Promoting innovations to ensure competitiveness of forest products

• Encouraging life-cycle-assessments

• Promoting green building standards

• Eliminating illegal logging

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

Forest Products Annual Market Reviews

• Review challenges and opportunities for sustainable consumption of forest products;

• Monitor developments in certification and labelling;

• Present innovative ways to use wood and forest products.

International Day of Forests

• Promote sustainable forest management practices and sustainable business principles;

• Showcase innovative use of wood and forest products (in fashion industry and food production).

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

Forest Resource Assessment

• Generate data for effective forest planning and national forest inventories

Study on “Promoting sustainable building materials and the implications on the use of wood in buildings”

• Monitor and analyse the developments in green building;

• Encourage innovative and traditional wood use in construction;

• Provide an overview on the new developments in green building and how they affect forest products.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Food and Agriculture Organization

Developing a methodology to assess the sustainability of forest management

Concurrently conducting six complex projects on sustainable production and consumption of forest products (more information available upon request)

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Turkey

Developing “National Forest Standards”

Certification target for 2015 is set to 3.2 million ha of forests (15% of total forested area)

Preparing the “National Green Building Standards” promoting:

• Sustainability;

• Resource-, energy- and water- efficiency;

• Mitigating the impact on the environment.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Russian Federation

The Law on Round Wood 415-FZ approved on 28 December 2013 is used as a tool to:

• Combat illegal logging;

• Trace round wood from its harvesting site to transport, sales, processing and export.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN Germany

The National Policy Strategy for Bioeconomy adopted on 17 July 2013 is a shift to a resource-efficient economy based on renewable resources

Federal Government’s Sustainability Strategy

“National Research Strategy Bioeconomy 2030 – our route towards a biobased economy” adopted in 2010 provides:

• Policy framework for sustainable bioeconomy;

• Sustainable products and renewable resources;

• Innovative technologies and products;

• Research and development;

• Information and dialogue with society;

• Education and training.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Germany

The National Forest Strategy 2020 (September 2011)

The National Sustainability Strategy

The Raw Materials Strategy (2010)

The German Resource Efficiency Programme (2012)

The Energy Concept for Environmentally Sound, Reliable and Affordable Energy Supply (2010)

The Biorefineries Roadmap (2012)

The Biomass Action Plan

The Action Plan for Industrial Use of Renewable Resources

The National Biodiversity Strategy

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN Germany

Timber Trade Safeguard Act of 15 July 2011

• Ensures that only legally produced forest products enter the market

Certification of sustainable sources of wood and wood products

• Ensures that forest products come from sustainable sources

Conducting forest inventories and life-cycle-assessments incorporating the whole value-added-chain from forests to timber products and recycling

Commitment to:

• Forest protection (to supply renewable raw materials);

• Research and development;

• Innovations;

• Sustainable green building practices;

• Wood power generation.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Ukraine

Forest management planning is obligatory for all forest users

National forest inventory prepared in 3 regions of Ukraine

Investments into the forest infrastructure for wood mobilisation through construction of forest roads

• 500-600 km of forest roads are built and maintained every year

TAIEX Mission conducted to examine timber regulations in EU and Ukraine

Participation in FLEG programme to support the development of sustainable forest management practices and compare them with the existing forest management policies in Ukraine

Improving the existing system of electronic wood tracking

B. Low-carbon forest sector

• Developing realistic low carbon strategies

• Substituting non-renewable materials with wood

• Promoting efficient processing and use of wood

• Improving climate adaptation of forests

• Promoting sequestration of carbon in forest and wood products

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

Joint Wood Energy Enquiry (since 2006) jointly with IEA, FAO and EC:

• Collecting data on wood energy (including wood energy sources and consumption of wood energy as well as the potential and future perspectives of wood energy in the region);

• Monitoring developments in wood energy, comparing them with the policy targets;

• Promoting cooperation between energy and forest sectors.

The work on Forest Resource Assessment helps to

• Improve national forest inventories;

• Monitor carbon stocks in the forests.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

The Forests for Fashion – Fashion for Forests Initiative, IDF 2014

• Promoted low carbon/renewable materials over their high-carbon/non-renewable alternatives

Study on “Promoting sustainable building materials and the implications on the use of wood in buildings”

• Encouraged innovative and traditional use of wood in construction

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Forest Fire was mandated to provide guidance to the UNECE member States on forest fire management and policies:

• Conducted UNECE/FAO Regional Forum on Cross-boundary Fire Management with the Global Fire Monitoring Centre (November 2013);

• Developed a "Study on the Contemporary and Expected Future Forest Fire Issues in the UNECE Region" and a “White Paper on the State of Wildfires and Fire Management in Forests and other Vegetation Resources in the UNECE Region” based on the UNECE-wide survey.

“International Fire Aviation Guidelines” and “International Wildfire Preparedness Mechanism” were developed by the Global Fire Monitoring Centre supported by the international advisory group

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Food and Agriculture Organization

Implementing 5 complex projects and capacity building activities to facilitate improvements in monitoring and early warning of forest pests and diseases in the region (more information available upon request)

Implementing 6 complex projects to support forest resources assessment and monitoring, including forest inventories in the region (more information available upon request)

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Turkey

Adopted policies promoting wood energy and established energy forests

To improve the capacity of the forest sector to adapt to climate change developed:

• National Afforestation Campaign;

• National Action Programme to Combat Desertification;

• National Erosion Control Action Plan.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Russian Federation

The Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 752 “On Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions” of 30 September 2013 aims to reduce the emission by 25% by 2020 equating it to the level of 1990

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Poland

The project on “Water Retention in the Polish State Forests” enhanced the capacity of forest lands to capture water and increase carbon absorption while protecting land from floods

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Germany

Forest Climate Fund (established in 2013):

• Mitigating climate change;

• Increasing CO2 sequestration in forests and forest products;

• Reducing CO2 emissions;

• Wood energy generation;

• Climate change adaptation.

Monitoring emissions of harmful substances and carrying out emission control activities.

Supporting cascaded use of wood, energy efficiency and waste avoidance

C. Decent green jobs in the forest sector

• Developing realistic strategies for decent green jobs

• Ensuring necessary skills

• Reducing health and safety risks of forest workforce

• Reviewing and improving harvesting methods

• Using tools to assess socio-economic impacts of green economy policies on the forest sector

• Improving forestry education

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

Team of Specialists on Green Jobs established in June 2014

Contributing to the FOREST EUROPE work on green economy and social aspects of sustainable forest management

• Workshop held in Santander, Spain in April 2014

Conducted a workshop on "Threats to sustainability of the Forest Sector Workforce" on 17 March 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland with the support of the Team of Specialists on Green Jobs to discuss the challenges of the forest sector workforce and seek solutions and countermeasures.

Preparing recommendations on how to improve the monitoring of occupational safety and health of the forestry workforce

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Turkey

Establishing professional standards for the forest sector

Translating into Turkish the publication on “Safety and health in forestry work” issued by the International Labour Organization in 2008

7 million “forest villagers” receive different privileges from the government

500,000 families are employed annually

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Russian Federation

Improving the situation with the forest-sector workforce and forestry education:

• Promoting decent green jobs and the profession itself;

• Celebrating the National Forest Knowledge Day (since 2013) on the International Day of Forests;

• Introducing a contest on “The Best School Forestry Unit” covering 59 regions of the Russian Federation;

• Conducting the International Junior Forest Contest to encourage international youth cooperation and environmental awareness;

• Offering professional forestry training programmes to students at 47 universities

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Germany

Improving harvesting techniques

Encouraging cost reduction practises

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Ukraine

Advancing in applying environmentally efficient, productive, safe and sustainable practices and methodologies in the forest sector and disseminating the experience gained in the process

Continuously reviewing and assessing existing curricula and study courses for forestry professionals to bring them in line with the present and emerging needs of the sector

D. Long-term provision of Forest Ecosystem Services

• Developing realistic strategies for the valuation and payment for ecosystem services

• Supporting assigning of economic value to non-marketed forest goods and enhancing public recognition of goods provided by forests

• Promoting best practice in the development of payment for ecosystem services

• Reviewing how forests contribute to or endanger human health and well-being

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

The study paper no. 34: “The Value of Forests, Payments for Ecosystem Services in a Green Economy” was published jointly with UNEP in March 2014

• This paper was used by FOREST EUROPE in their work on the valuation of Forest Ecosystem Services

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN Turkey

Developing the “Honey Production Forests Action Plan”

Integrating nature conservation into the economic system

Introducing the “Urban Forests Action Plan” and mapping ecosystem services and bio-valuation studies

Conducting ecotourism activities (40-82 % of income acquired from hunting tourism in Turkey is shared with the village legal entities)

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Poland

The project on “Water Retention in the Polish State Forests” enhanced the capacity of forest lands to capture water and increase carbon absorption while protecting land from floods

E. Policy development and monitoring of the forest sector in relation to green economy

• Developing realistic strategies for governance and monitoring of the forest sector

• Reviewing existing forest sector policies in light of green economy

• Ensuring that forest information is comprehensive and available to the policymakers

• Ensuring that policy makers make use of the best available information and analysis on sustainable forest management

• Improving communication and debating on the role of forest sector in green economy

• Exchanging experience with other sectors

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

Implementing a 2-year capacity-building project on “Sustainable Forest Management for Greener Economies in the Caucasus and Central Asia” (launched in 2013, funded by UNDA):

• Targeting 7 countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan;

• Developing training materials on sustainable forest management for green economy, wood energy, data collection and policy / strategy development;

• Conducting 46 capacity building workshops;

• Developing National Action Plans / National Forest Strategies for 3 pilot countries (Georgia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan);

• Creating a web-based hub for knowledge management on forest-related issues.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

Developed and maintained inter-organisational cooperation on forest resource assessment (while preparing the Collaborative Forest Resource Questionnaire and during the pan-European reporting process)

Developed green economy indicator data sets to demonstrate the contribution of the forest sector to a green economy (December 2013)

Prepared a background paper to measure the progress of the forest sector towards green economy

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

Prepared a publication on “Forests in the ECE region: Trends and Challenges in Achieving the Global Objectives on Forests” as a regional contribution to UNFF session held in May 2015 in New York

Jointly with FAO, national and international experts and Team of Specialists on Sustainable Forest Management developing a System for the Evaluation of the Management of Forests (SEMAFOR, currently in the phase of pilot implementation) :

• A transparent monitoring system with interactive reporting on sustainability of forest management at the pan-European level;

• Based on the data collected through the UNECE/FAO/Forest Europe reporting process for 2015;

• Developed to identify the countries’ strengths and weaknesses in sustainable forest management and to assist national policy makers in evaluating the progress achieved and corrective measures required.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Joint UNECE / FAO Forestry and Timber Section

Forest Communicators’ Network contributes to improving the ability of the sector to effectively communicate by developing national and international communication capacities and sharing experience

Organised communication activities on the occasion of the International Day of Forests on 21 March:

• “Forests for Fashion – Fashion for Forests” in 2014

• “Forests for Food – Food for Forests” in 2015

Prepared the study on “Promoting sustainable building materials and the implications on the use of wood in buildings”

• Contributes to forming the opinion of the legislators and general public on wood being “ecologically, economically, and technically preferred” construction material

Conducted capacity-building activities on forests, forest products and wood energy data

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Food and Agriculture Organization

Conducting 10 complex projects and 4 workshops to:

• Develop the capacities of all stakeholders to implement sustainable forest management and forest protection measures;

• Monitor the implementation progress.

(more information available upon request)

Contributed to carrying out a comparative analysis of the concept of “sustainable forest management” through their commitment to:

• Forest Resources Assessment 2015;

• Indicators for the sustainable development goals;

• Specific socio-economic and governance aspects.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Turkey

National Action Plan for the Forest Sector in a Green Economy

• Based on the structure and content of the Rovaniemi Action Plan;

• Harmonized with the national regulations (incorporating national targets from the National Development Agenda);

• Specific governmental departments are assigned to coordinate the implementation of activities under each pillar of the Action Plan.

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Germany

Conducting cluster and market analyses of the forest and timber sector

Communicating the benefits of forests and timber for the society through media and providing comprehensive information to the public and policy makers

Conducting environmental competitions and giving awards for the best wooden construction

ROVANIEMI ACTION PLAN

Ukraine

Implementing the FAO TCP project on "Consolidation of Forest Policy in Ukraine“ and developing the capacities of all stakeholders to:

• Implement sustainable forest management and forest protection measures;

• Monitor the implementation progress;

• Discuss problems in the forest sector.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!