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Katie Amos from the United Kingdom, Olesya Balashova from Russia, and Caroline Ulaga from Slovenia have won the European Forest Week 2017 Art Contest. FAO received 360 entries from 21 countries for the contest, which challenged participants aged 5-19 years to create a drawing or painting…
Armenian forests are among the most threatened ecosystems, with degradation accelerating, largely attributable to deforestation and overexploitation. Thus, “expansion of forests is one of the main goals for Armenia, not only for the forests’ protective role, but also to develop forest-related…
Forests in Uzbekistan cover about 7% of the land area and play an important role in the protection and prevention of environmental degradation, in particular land degradation, natural disasters, and conservation of biodiversity and preservation of water quality. Moreover, wood is an important…
Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world. Forest cover in the country is 4.7% (29 million hectares), an area the size of Great Britain. Almost 90% of the land in Kazakhstan is made up of steppe, desert and semi-desert. Forests in Kazakhstan are quite diverse: 66% are forested lands,…
Forests are on the catwalk again, making sustainability more fashionable than ever. The initiative “Forests for Fashion” was first launched in 2014 by UNECE and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). Since then it has inspired other initiatives and partners to join forces and…
Under the theme: Forests, our common good, European Forest Week 2017 will highlight the contribution that European forests make to people’s lives. These include providing wood and renewable energy, promoting fresh water supply and protecting the environment.The city of Warsaw will host the 2017…
In the 1970s and 1980s, acid rain and concerns about related forest dieback in many parts of Europe led to heated debates, driving the negotiations on the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. An International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air…
Forests are increasingly attractive to people as a place of leisure and recreation, but less and less as a workplace. High levels of occupational injury and fatal accidents, low wages and low social status in some areas and sectors, and an ageing and largely male workforce make the sector…
Sustainable forest management indicators developed through a participatory process can provide important information on forest resources and support evidence-based forest policies. The concept of criteria and indicators, integrating social, economic and ecological aspects, was developed…
Wood energy is an important renewable energy source. The CO2 absorbed by growing trees is equivalent to the CO2 that is released by burning wood. In 2013, wood energy accounted for 3.5 percent of the total primary energy supply and 37.5% of the renewable energy supply among UNECE member States,…
In 2014, renewable energy accounted for 14% of the world’s global total primary energy supply, according to the International Energy Agency. Solid biofuels represented the largest share of this, amounting to 44.5% in the EU. These are any renewable, biological material used as fuel such as…
After independence, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan struggled with the big task to build their own systems leading forestry into sustainability. The problems and challenges are diverse and often country specific. In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan afforestation is used to fight…
Forests are the most efficient way to sequester carbon, and forest products provide materials that are often much more carbon friendly than other alternatives. Properly managed forests and forest products have great promise in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (…
Reducing forest cover, illegal logging and land degradation pose serious threat to the forests in the Caucasus and Central Asia. To address these issues forest sector needs a long term vision together with national strategies and action plans to support the sustainable management and use of…
Forests maintain water quality, regulate surface and ground water flows, and help to mitigate the risks of water-related disasters. Forests and water are closely connected and mutually interdependent. The way we manage our forests is key to the quality of the water we drink, to protect us from…
Montenegro, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia plead for strengthening the regional cooperation between neighboring countries on roundwood trade. Knowledge and experience exchange together with realistic figures of roundwood removals are crucial to address the problem…
What is the value of forests, from forest products markets to payments for ecosystem services? These will be some of the key issues discussed at Silva2015 and the 3rd European Forest Week, held in the Alpine village of Engelberg, Switzerland, from 2-6 November. The debates will review practical…
Using wood energy in households in a sustainable manner is complex but feasible. This was one of the main findings of the workshop “More heat with less wood”, that gathered experts from diverse backgrounds such as air quality, human health, heating technology researchers and technical…
Making a fire is easy, but achieving efficient usage of wood energy at home is everything else but easy! The challenge of optimally exploiting the heat capacity of wood affects several areas, reaching from thermal insulation of houses via heating technologies to the right choice of the type…
Have you noticed the forest inside the Palais des Nation, tasted food from the forest or followed the debates on sustainable forest management? On Friday 20 March, UNECE, FAO and UNOG joined forces to celebrate the International Day of Forests at the Palais des Nations. The Italian corner served…