Ministerial panel – Decisive Roles of Forests Towards 2050

The Ministerial Panel will take place during the closing day of the Congress. The ministers will capture the scientific community’s attention regarding synergies and conflicting demands for forest products and services. The panel will be asked to formulate which knowledge and actions are needed to create a sustainable society from a regional and global perspective. There will also be interaction with the audience. The ministers will reflect on the audience’s input on the future roles of forests.

The starting point for the dialogue is the Nordic and Baltic contribution to the Stockholm Congress Statement, based on dialogues before the Congress with a wide range of green sector stakeholders. It provides concise answers to two key questions:

1. What decisive roles for society will forest services, products, and systems play in 2050 and why?
2. What is needed from decision-makers and research communities to support your vision of forest services, products and systems’ role in society in 2050?

The Ministerial Panel will be moderated by Mr Johan Kuylenstierna, Director General at FORMAS – Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development.
After an introduction, the panel will be led through a conversation centring roughly around the following questions:

• Forests are a key natural resource worldwide with increasingly competing demands. What are the implications of this potential synergies and conflicting demands, for example between social values, biodiversity, higher-value wood products and climate benefits?
• The geopolitical landscape is changing and affecting trade dynamics and relationships globally, for example on the one side the EU Deforestation Regulation and on the other the trends pointing toward increasing fragmentation as countries and regions focus more on self-sufficiency. What impacts do you expect this to have on forest resources in your country and worldwide? What effects will this have on the potential for countries’ forest supply chains to complement each other?
• Wherein lies the greatest potential benefits of forests for society towards 2050? What decisions and strategies do you intend to push through? Which potential future pathways do we need a better understanding of?
• Which are the most important challenges where we, between countries, can learn from each other?

We have the honour to present the following panel participants:

(Soipan Tuya (photo), Minister, Cabinet Secretary of Environment, Ministry of Climate Change and Forestry, Kenya, represents the coming host country of the IUFRO World Congress 2029.)
Ambassador Angeline Kavindu Musili, Embassy of the Republic of Kenya in Stockholm, replaced Soipan Tuya to participate in the Ministerial Panel instead.

Karen Ellemann, Secretary General, Nordic Council of Ministers, represents the inter-governmental co-operation between the IUFRO World Congress 2024 co-host countries in the Nordic Region.

Sari Essayah, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Finland, represent the co-hosting country.

Dan Ericsson, State Secretary, Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, Sweden, represents the main host country Sweden of the IUFRO World Congress 2024.

Johan Kuylenstierna, Director General, Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, with extensive experience in research and climate policy, as well as environmental and development cooperation.