10 March 2009: In a press release, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) underscored that investing in sustainable forest management could create ten million new “green jobs,” thereby reducing poverty and protecting the environment by contributing to climate change mitigation.

The FAO explains that increased investment in forestry could provide jobs in the following areas: forest management; agroforestry; farm forestry; improved fire management; development and management of trails and recreation sites; expansion of urban green spaces; restoration of degraded forests; and plantation of new forests. The FAO provides national examples of how forestry can be a part of economic stimulus plans and stresses that reversing the downward trend in forest cover in many countries would help reduce carbon emissions from land-use change.
The role of sustainable forest management in helping build a green future will be one of the main themes of World Forest Week, to be held in conjunction with FAO’s Committee on Forestry, from 16-20 March 2009, in Rome, Italy. [FAO Press Release]