Restoration of degraded forests is very high on the agenda. If programmes for restoration are to succeed on a large scale we must try to learn from both successes and failures. Many plantation projects in the South run into social problems that attract attention in the domestic and international media. Many argue that the best solution is to engage farmers in production, but this is also a real challenge.

This report is part of the project “Experiences from Vietnam” at the Secretariat for International Forestry Issues (SIFI) at The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA). The purpose of the work is to summarise parts of the experience available regarding the development of farm based forestry in Northern Vietnam and particularly near the pulp and paper mill Bai Bang. The report gives a reader, not familiar with the unique development, an introduction to the history of Bai Bang and its importance for rural development and reforestation of Northern Vietnam. The report will also highlight today’s Vietnam from various factors that may have a future impact on the progress made both near Bai Bang and the rest of Northern Vietnam. Lessons learned from Bai Bang may also be used in other parts of the world.

Silviculture aims at controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health and quality of forests and woodlands to meet the diverse needs of landowners and society on a sustainable basis.

Major challenges in today’s research

IUFRO Division 1 ”Silviculture” brings together more than 100 scientists who focus their work on a broad range of topics and address two major challenges in today’s research – the adaptation of forests and forestry to climate change, and the development of more flexible agroforestry systems.

Short-rotation, peat and ungulates

A lot of research work in Division 1 is focused on boreal forests. Besides the Research Group (RG) Boreal forest silviculture and management, there is, for example, a Working Party (WP) on Peatland forest science, which is especially relevant for Sweden where one-quarter of the land area is covered with peat, and partly used for forestry. The RG Short-rotation forestry strives for a larger share of renewable energy, and thus more efficient use of bioenergy from forests, and, the WP on Silviculture and ungulates looks at the influence of moose and roe deer on forests and trees.

IUFRO – the worlds´ forest science network

The International Union of Forest Research Organizations is the World’s Forest Science Network. It is the only worldwide international organization devoted to forest research and related sciences and is open to organizations and individuals involved in forest research and forest-related sciences. Headquarters of this non-governmental and non-profit union established in 1892 are currently located in Vienna, Austria.

The Swedish bid for IUFRO 2019 was selected for further consideration

In total, eight bids for the IUFRO World Congress 2019 were received by the deadline. The IUFRO Management Committee (MC) has carefully evaluated all bids. The Swedish bid submitted by SLU has been selected for further consideration together with a Tri-national bid submitted by Germany and a bid from Brazil. These bids will finally be presented for the IUFRO board the 10th June in Costa Rica.

Read more about IUFRO -the worlds´ forest science network in SIFI newletter 9.

By Björn Hånell, Professor, Coordinator of IUFRO Division 1 – Silviculture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Genomgång om dagens läge, prioriteringar, framsteg och utmaningar, samt diskussion kring de centrala frågorna och projektets fortsatta utveckling.

Bakgrund

Global Utmaning har beviljats treårig delfinansiering av Sida för projektet ABBBA- Bioenergy & Biofuels Business Assessment. Initiativet syftar till att få till stånd hållbara investeringar i afrikansk bioenergi- och biobränslemarknad.

28 maj, kl. 10-12, OSA till klara.grenhagen@globalutmaning.se
Birger Jarlsgatan 27

Läs mer om ABBBA här eller följ oss på Facebook.

Arbetsgruppen: Tove Strauss, Klara Grenhagen och Mattias Goldmann
Styrgrupp: Bo Göransson, Lennart Båge och Kristina Persson

There have been two previous Latin American congresses promoted by IUFRO, both of them in Chile (the first located in Valdivia, 1998 and the latter in La Serena, 2006) organized by INFOR, the Forest Research Institute of Chile. These events, have allowed researchers, academics, the commercial private sector, trade unions, journalists and communicators and policy makers to share and exchange information and experiences on critical issues affecting tree ecosystems and forest landscapes, as well as their strategies and contribution towards development in Latin America.

The third Latin American congress (III IUFROLAT) is going to be held in Costa Rica, from  12 to 15 June 2013, organized by CATIE (Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), RIABM (Iberoamerican Model Forest Network) and other regional members. The theme of the event is related with Forest and Ecosystem Services, Forest Sector Competitiveness and Governance Management.

HOMEPAGE: http://web.catie.ac.cr/iufrolat/IufroLat_ing.htm

In the UN system and in other international arenas there are now intensive discussions on what will follow on the MDG’s after 2015 and consequently guide development, and thereby development research, for the next 15-20 years. The new proposal has been named Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). Sustainable agricultural production and agricultural research, are fundamental and instrumental in the tremendous challenge to reach Sustainable Development. Achieving the SDG’s could be the driver and motivator in Agricultural Research for Development. Hence the theme for the 2013 Agricultural Research for Development will be:

Agricultural Research Towards Sustainable Development Goals

We will in addition introduce some sub-themes, relevant to the theme and also continuously relevant to agricultural research for development, to the research society and to sustainable development.

The sub-themes are:

• Capacity Development

• Sustainable Intensification

• Climate Change

• Multi-disciplinarity

At the conference there will be opportunities for individual scientists and PhD students to present research projects, ideas and results in posters, parallel sessions and/or discussion fora. Please watch for more detailed program on our web sites (e.g. www.agri4d.se). Also make sure to register your own intended contributions.

Book these dates: 25-26th of September

for the 2013 Conference

Agricultural Research for Development

Venue: SLU – Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala

To understand more Sida asked the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) the following questions:

• How to improve accountability in land-based investments?
• How to make agricultural investments more inclusive?
• How to invest in locally controlled resource use?

IIED is one of the world’s top policy research organizations working in the field of sustainable development.

Programme

14.15        Welcome by Malin Elisson, Sida,

14.20        Introduction and chairing (James Mayers, IIED)

14:25        Pathways to accountability in large-scale land acquisitions (Emily Polack, IIED)

14:40        Making agricultural investments more inclusive (Lorenzo Cotula, IIED – videoconference from Edinburgh)

14:55        Investing in locally controlled forestry (Duncan Macqueen, IIED – on the videoconference from Edinburgh)

15:10        Discussion

15.35        Concluding comments (Steve Bass, IIED and Kerstin J. Cissé, Sida)

15.45        Close and Coffee

ETFRN-54ok

Background

Restoration of degraded forests is very much up on the agenda. The World Resources Institute (WRI) talks about the need to restore two billion ha with degraded land. Restoration work has gone on for long but has met many difficulties along the way. This concerns both intensive industrial plantations and small-scale farm forestry. If programs for restoration shall succeed at a large scale we must try to learn from both successes and failures. This seminar highlights Swedish experiences from the development project in Bai Bang, Vietnam and opens up for a discussion about how these lessons could be used in other parts of the world.

Many plantations have failed

One can easily get the impression that plantations in the South are a great success. In reality many plantations have failed. Many projects run into social problems with increasing attention in the domestic and international media. StoraEnso, Vattenfall, the Diocese of Västerås, SEKAB, ADDAX and others have been engaged in biomass production in the South and evidently with good intentions. These enterprises have, however, experienced problems and heavy criticism. It may be that some of the criticism is unjust, but it seems difficult for Nordic actors to engage in biomass production in the South without running into real problems. Is it too difficult? Many argue that the best solution is to engage farmers in the production, but this is also a true challenge.

The open landscape has been changed into forest

The bare hills around Bai Bang that looked like a desert in the 1980s are now covered with forests. The first plantations were established by state enterprises and co-operatives, but after the economic reforms in 1986 (Doi Moi) farmers started to plant trees as a commercial crop. Today, it is reported that more or less all wood for Bai Bang is directly or indirectly produced by farmers. It is interesting to note that the farmers seem to have adjusted the original “intensive” method to suit their own conditions. The open landscape around Bai Bang has been changed into forest, but in spite of this there is no talk of conflict. The seminar focus on the main reasons behind this success, e.g. the establishment of a reliable market or that land was allocated to farmers?             

Program

Moderator   Dr. Fredrik Ingemarson, Project Manager for the Secretariat for International Forestry Issues, KSLA

More about the SIFI project about Vietnam

http://www.sifi.se/projekt/erfarenheter-fran-vietnam/

Det svenska debattklimatet påminner idag mycket om det som rådde i Finland för några år sedan. Med talrika finländska nedläggningar inom skogsindustrin bör den svenska debatten ställa sig frågan om fler alternativ än en ökad efterfrågan på skoglig råvara kan finnas.

Debatten i Finland

Skogsindustriproduktionen har under de tio senaste åren minskat väsentligt i både Kanada och Finland. Det finns en rad bakomliggande orsaker, men minskad efterfrågan är nog den viktigaste. Mot denna bakgrund är det mycket märkligt att det inte tycks förekomma en seriös diskussion om den uppenbara risken för minskad skogsindustriproduktion och skogsanvändning i Sverige.

Dagens debattklimat i Sverige påminner mycket om det som rådde i Finland för några år sedan. Många tecken tydde på en omvandling i den finländska skogsbranschen men dessa undveks i debatten. Följaktligen kom de talrika nedläggningarna som en blixt från klar himmel.

I Finland har beredskapen blivit bättre

I Finland har både beredskapen för och diskussionen om olika framtida scenarier blivit klart bättre under senare år. Fortfarande finns olika uppfattningar, men de förutbestämda premisserna har blivit färre. Att tryckpappersproduktionen troligen minskar ytterligare är inget tabu längre. På längre sikt kan traditionell produktion, bioenergi samt helt nya produkter skapa mer värde än den tidigare produktionsstrukturen – men bara i bästa fall. Att skogsanvändningen skulle öka markant ens i detta alternativ anses inte längre självklart. Många tänkbara nya biomassabaserade produkter förutsätter inte så stor råvaruanvändning som de nuvarande och vissa av dem kan också bygga på annan biomassa än skog.

Dags att lyfta frågan i Sverige

I den svenska diskussionen förväntas den traditionella skogsindustriproduktionen vara på sin nuvarande nivå, den skogsbaserade bioenergin förväntas öka markant, nya skogliga produkter tillverkas i stora volymer och faktorer som rekreation, kolbindning, biodiversitet förväntas öka i betydelse. I en sådan framtid kan en ökad skogstillväxt och bättre konflikthantering tänkas vara motiverad. Dessvärre är den framtiden ej det enda alternativet. Andra scenarier, där både skogsindustriproduktion och skogsanvändning minskar, bör också diskuteras och utredas. Annars saknas beredskapen för oväntade och oönskade förlopp.

Nedskärningsvågen slår hårt

Skogsbranschen och skogsanvändningen i Sverige tar i framtiden knappast samma väg som den nu tagit i Kanada eller Finland. Däremot skulle det vara mycket märkligt, om Sverige nästan helt skulle lyckas undkomma den kapacitetsnedskärning av tryckpappersproduktionen och strukturomvandling av branschen som skett överallt i väst – och som tycks fortsätta med full styrka. Stora Ensos nedläggning av ytterligare två tryckpappersmaskiner i Sverige tyder tvärtom på att nedskärningsvågen nu på allvar når även Sverige.  Kanske dags att ta upp frågan till diskussion?

Jakob Donner-Amnell, jakob.donner-amnell@uef.fi, omvärldsanalytiker, Östra Finlands Universitet.