FAO’s flagship publication, The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO), published every two years, presents data and analysis on the interactions between forests and people, with a specific thematic focus. It complements FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRAs), issued every five years, and other forest-related FAO publications. The present publication, SOFO 2024, provides highlights on the state of the world’s forests and builds on the FAO Science and Innovation Strategy to explore the role of innovation in promoting forest conservation, restoration and sustainable use in the context of agrifood systems transformation. It explores the importance of innovation in relation to the FAO Strategy on Climate Change 2022–2031,12 the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors,13 and other FAO stategies and guidelines by providing an overview of innovations in the forest sector (Box 2 defines “forest sector”).
Box 2The forest sector
For the purposes of this report, “forest sector” is defined as the “wide range of activities related to sustainable forest management, the provision and production of timber and other wood and non-wood forest products, the protection of forest ecosystems and biodiversity, and safeguarding the benefits of forests.”14 Thus, it encompasses all activities involving forests,* as well as trees outside forests such as in some agroforestry and urban forestry settings, and diverse stakeholders, including governments, civil-society organizations, producer organizations, cooperatives, private-sector organizations, Indigenous Peoples, vulnerable and marginalized communities, youth and women. The term “forest-sector innovation” is used here to encompass the range of innovations under this broad definition of the forest sector.
* FAO defines “forest” as land spanning more than 0.5 ha with trees higher than 5 m and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.15
SOFO 2024 has five chapters:
▸ Chapter 1 is this introductory chapter.
▸ Chapter 2 draws on FRA 2020,16 FAOSTAT17 and other sources to present recent trends in forests globally and projections of wood production, highlighting the importance of forest-sector innovation for tackling challenges.
▸ Chapter 3 introduces FAO’s typology for innovation and provides an overview of the diversity of forest-related innovations.
▸ Chapter 4 presents 18 case studies on innovative approaches and technologies being used to support the forest sector.
▸ Chapter 5 discusses enabling actions for scaling up innovations in the forest sector.
