The President’s Discussion is a valued feature of IUFRO World Congresses. The 2024 panel discussion will focus on translating scientific research into effective forest management to meet multiple societal objectives.

In this era of rapid environmental, economic, and social change, forest managers and policymakers must deal with a variety of complex challenges and balance often conflicting objectives to meet the multiple demands placed on forests by stakeholders and society more broadly.

Despite the significant advances in all fields of forest science made in recent decades, a persistent gap exists between the knowledge and experience within the forest research community and its application to the pressing issues faced by decision-makers, including communities and other forest and land managers.

Based on their experiences in different contexts, discussants will consider how forest scientists, research organizations, and in some cases the holders and users of traditional forest knowledge, can best work with forest managers and other decision makers to translate their knowledge and insights into supportive policies and improved outcomes for forests and people, and the role of IUFRO in facilitating such collaboration.

Building on the Congress theme of Forests and Society Towards 2050, this subplenary session will showcase communication, advertising, and messaging techniques to make the forest research and sustainability agenda more compelling to diverse stakeholders.

Sustainable wood contributes to a resilient planet, stores carbon for its lifetime, and presents a viable alternative to fossil-fuel based materials. Consumers have begun to shift behaviours towards more sustainable products. Building green value chains is essential to meet the future demand for wooden materials and stimulates sustainable economies by creating green jobs.

Messaging plays a big role in how policymakers and the public perceive and understand sustainability issues and opportunities. This panel will address sustainability communication and advertising, with a focus on wood as a sustainable building material.

Recognizing the significance of forests and trees, it is essential to continuously advance and disseminate innovation through forest- and tree-related research. This requires strong leadership in the field of science and effective management skills to overcome major challenges across all areas of research.

The primary objective of this session is to provide Heads and Directors of IUFRO’s over 600 member organizations with valuable insights and strategies to address the challenges faced by forest research and education institutions. Specifically, the session will focus on major forest related developments and related policy challenges such as climate change and energy, bioeconomy, ecosystem management and adaptation needs as well as science communication in times of artificial intelligence.

Effectively addressing these challenges and operating along the science/policy interface necessitates strong leadership for sustainability. Talent retention and acquisition, climate change impact and funding strategies are the most critical challenges at the moment. Empowerment of women and youth have proven to be a valuable asset in view of organisational development. Interdisciplinary approaches help to nourish innovative thinking for strategic management.

By the end of the 60-minute session, participants will gain valuable insights how leadership can drive sustainability in forest research. They will be equipped with practical strategies and examples of success to tackle the challenges faced by their organizations.

Understanding ‘regime’ as a set of governance arrangements, the international forest regime is a complex topic. Numerous national and international organizations with different mandates and capacities, aware of the threats to the world’s forests, are adopting instruments and programmes designed to protect forest conditions, livelihoods, and human well-being. This protection is essential given the important role that forests play economically and in climate change mitigation and resilience, as well as in biodiversity conservation. Nonetheless, in global terms, forest protection seems to be failing, since the pace of deforestation continues at alarming rates.

The Science-Policy Programme of IUFRO has just finalized a study based on its assessment report on International Forest Regime published in 2010. This new study provides an analysis of the latest available knowledge on global forest governance and was published at the 19th Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests in May 2024.

This Congress sub-plenary session will present the outcomes of the study, discussing the main aspects of the international forest governance context form a scientific point of view to improve the understanding of its increasing complexity.

During the years 2020–2022, our world faced global catastrophes, ranging from tremendous droughts, wildfires, severe flooding, landslides, to biodiversity and energy crises, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The session will bring together stakeholders in climate mitigation, agriculture, energy, wood technology, biodiversity, and conservation to develop solutions towards 2050 and communicate the cross-sectoral relevance of forests in combatting global issues, aligning with themes two and three of the Congress.

We aim to illustrate the knowledge that is needed to achieve the future young people envision and the role of indigenous knowledge and forest education in equipping the youth with necessary skills. The session will facilitate an intergenerational dialogue, with young people exploring visions and hopes for the future and experts providing practical ideas on how to achieve that future and increase the involvement of the forestry sector in cross-sectoral collaboration.

Through a more visual experience with live illustrations, picture-based ‘Ted-talk’ format presentations and engaging dialogue, we will create a youthful, creative and unique session, which will provide concrete outcomes and leave the audience with a visual understanding of potential solutions.

While various international processes struggle to reach consensus on binding agreements to halt deforestation and forest degradation, an increasing array of actors have turned to regional, bilateral and unilateral approaches to pursue their particular interests and solutions among smaller “coalitions of the willing”.

Following up on Thursday’s sub-plenary session “International Forest Governance: A Comprehensive Global Review” this roundtable zooms into the regions seeking to improve the understanding of regional forest governance needs, challenges and solutions. By bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise from major regional stakeholders, the discussion will dig deeper into the overlaps and trade-offs between diverse initiatives and opportunities for co-creation and sharing of power, benefits and knowledge at the regional level. Speakers encompass senior officials of regional forest governance institutions, as well as experts from the scientific and indigenous communities.

This session will confront – and try to reconcile – a variety of trends and perspectives on possible forest futures in 2050, from various – often conflicting – angles and demands that fall on the forest sector, such as climate, carbon, biodiversity, wood and materials production for the bioeconomy, food security (including liberation of land to farming), income generation etc.

The session will highlight key macro trends and perspectives impinging on forests since 2000, with the aim to identify how they can be curved and reconciled by mid-century, towards some desirable, consistent future. Each of such perspective, projected into the future, often leads to particular scenarios: can these scenarios be confronted? What is desirable and what is undesirable when we look into the state of forests in 2050? Can we envisage a coherent – and desirable – future in 2050, looking at all these perspectives altogether? How to build one consistency space, across a range of different expectations and narratives: are their synergies or will difficult choices have to be made between priorities? What does it take between now and 2020 to enable such a future? This, accounting (and leveraging) the diversity of forestry contexts at landscape, regional and global levels, different forest biomes, different, multiple outputs and ecosystems services from forests, different management intensities from intact forests to planted forests, different management systems from sylviculture to agroforestry, silvopastoral systems, etc.

This session will feature flash talks from a set of experts presenting about forests trajectories from 2000 and futures into 2050, each from a specific perspective, followed by a panel debate – and interaction with the room – on how these futures can be reconciled, with the aim to inform long term choices, orientations and decisions about forest policies and their integration into cross-sectoral sustainable development effort by 2050.

Forest science can play a vital role in informing decisions in the private sector on key sustainability challenges. An exchange between science, business and other stakeholders in the forest-based sector is therefore an important element in reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The session is hosted by TEAMING UP 4 FORESTS, a forest science and business platform to discuss and identify science-based future pathways on the most pressing challenges for forest, people and industry.

This session aims to build bridges between science, business, and stakeholders for the benefit of forests, the sector and society. It aspires to serve as a hub for the exchange between science and business, provide best practice examples, and point out the future potential for collaboration within the forest-based sector. In this session, a panel will discuss the importance of collaboration between science and business, as viewed by both business representatives and participating scientists. Additionally, the session aims to underscore the value of scientific knowledge and insights to address challenges that businesses encounter.

Cutting-edge research and new scientific insights will be discussed as well as emerging project and partnership opportunities for the forest-based industry. At the end of the session, participants will have the opportunity to address questions directly to the panellists and engage in the conversation.