Finland promotes sustainable forest-based bioeconomy as part of new global coalition
The webinar series of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAO that started on Tuesday 11 March is part of a global initiative aimed to develop forest-based bioeconomy worldwide. At the opening of the series, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah stressed the role of multilateral cooperation as we move towards sustainable forest-based bioeconomy.
As part of its international forest policy, Finland supports actions that strengthen the role of forests and their sustainable use in the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals worldwide.
One of these is the two-year Country and Organization-Led Initiative (COLI) launched by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management of Austria to promote forest-based bioeconomy through multilateral cooperation. The initiative aims to develop and promote global dialogue on sustainable forest-based bioeconomy approaches and solutions.
The opening event of FAO’s global webinar series that started on Tuesday 11 March presented national and regional strategies and other practices that have proven good to further strengthen the role of the forest sector in the wider efforts to promote the bioeconomy. The welcoming address was delivered by FAO’s Director-General Dongyu Qu.
In her opening address Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah stressed the role of international multilateral cooperation. Increasing international cooperation is also one of the objectives of Finland’s National Forest Strategy 2035.
“Sustainable forest-based bioeconomy approaches require collaboration across sectors, borders, and disciplines. It is very positive that bioeconomy in general and forest-based bioeconomy approaches in particular are currently experiencing a growing political interest in many countries,” Minister Essayah said.
In her address, Minister Essayah referred to the high-level principles on bioeconomy that were developed under the Brazilian Presidency of the G20 last year. Finland was one of the invited states in the process. The Minister also spoke about Finland’s National Bioeconomy Strategy.
Role of forest-based bioeconomy getting stronger globally
Forest-based bioeconomy is more and more strongly identified as a highly promising sector worldwide. Many states and institutions are making efforts to integrate forest-based priorities into broader bioeconomy strategies and into their sustainable development measures.
In addition to Austria and Finland, the parties to the COLI initiative are Australia, Japan, Türkiye, FAO and the International Union of Forest Research Organizations IUFRO. More countries and international organizations are hoped to join the initiative. COLI also promotes the work of the United Nations Forum on Forests UNFF and the Committee of Forests of FAO COFO.
Besides Minister Essayah, high-level opening addresses were delivered by Norbert Totschnig, Federal Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management of Austria, and Pierre Taty from Congo, who will chair the upcoming session of FAO’s Committee on Forestry.
In his keynote speech Antti Asikainen, Chair of the Finnish Forest Bioeconomy Science Panel, spoke about how the forest sector can produce added value to the whole society. The added value of forest-based bioeconomy can be increased by producing higher value-added materials, which requires investments in the commercialisation of new material innovations and billions in investments in production plants. Asikainen pointed out that the consideration of added value must be expanded from wood-produced products to other benefits generated by forests, such as nature tourism, recreation and climate issues.
The topics of the upcoming webinars include the role of knowledge, partnerships and financing as we move towards a sustainable forest-based bioeconomy.
Related links:
Webinar series on FAO’s website
Inquiries:
Tapio Luoma-aho, Special Adviser to Minister Essayah, e-mail: [email protected], tel. +358 295162 340
Tiina Rytilä, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, e-mail: [email protected], tel. +358 295 162 261