The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry recently published a report outlining the global forest politics. The report provides an excellent overview of the conventions, international cooperations and policies addressing forest and forestry.

For Sweden as a forest nation, it is of key importance to know what is happening on the international political arena on issues related to forests and forestry. In recent years, this has become particularly evident in the framework of international climate cooperation where forest resources are identified as part of the solution to the climate problem.

But forest issues are also discussed in a number of other global and regional political forums. Following the UN’s Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, international forest policy cooperation has grown significantly in scope. Several international agreements relate to forest issues and a number of international organisations have forest-related matters on their agenda. Like other sectors, the forest sector is affected to a growing extent, both directly and indirectly, by decisions taken beyond Sweden’s borders. This means that there is a growing need to understand what is happening on the international political arena with regard to forest issues. Parallel to this, the international “forest policy map” has become increasingly complex in recent years and in some respects hard to grasp.

The purpose of this report is to contribute to the understanding of international forest policy and how this affects Sweden and Swedish forestry. The report provides an overview of the most important international agreements and other political processes that, in various ways, are linked to forests and forestry. It mainly focuses on intergovernmental cooperation and has a Swedish perspective as its point of departure. The idea is that the report should provide a framework and serve as a gateway for those seeking further information; consequently, it contains references to websites and relevant policy documents.

Download the report International Forest Policy - An overview.