New Generation Plantations: what future role towards sustainability?
In the longer term, as population and incomes grow, maintaining near zero forest loss will require forestry and farming practices that produce more with less land, water and pollution, and new consumption patterns that meet the needs of the poor while eliminating waste and over-consumption by the affluent.
Even with more frugal use and greater efficiencies, net demand for wood and paper is likely to grow. WWF projects that maintaining near zero loss of natural forests after 2020 without significant reductions in consumption would require up to 250 million hectares of new tree plantations by 2050, which is nearly double the amount of plantations today. Therefore, well-managed plantations, particularly on currently degraded land, and restored ecosystems will play an increasingly important role (Living Forests Report, WWF 2012).
Plantations use less land to produce a given volume of fibre than logging natural forests and if New Generation Plantations (NGP) concept is applied, plantations can have positive environmental and social impacts. The NGP concept describes an ideal form of plantation that maintains ecosystem integrity, protects high conservation values and is developed through effective stakeholder participation, while contributing to economic growth and employment.
The New Generation Plantations is a learning and influencing platform of WWF, companies and government agencies, in dialogue to develop sustainable solutions for plantation management. The platform aims to advocate better plantation practices in key regions by learning from real‐world examples and experiences of participants, showing and sharing practical examples of how better plantation management can be done.
WWF seeks dialogue, insights and political leverage with the NGP platform to better understand and advocate planning and management practices that are associated with environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically viable land-use decision-making; in so doing, optimizing the full potential value of plantations.
Biography
Luis Neves Silva is a forest engineer from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia of Lisbon, Portugal. Luis has accumulated extensive experience in sustainable forestry working with private, public and NGO sectors. In 1995, he commenced his work in sustainable agriculture and forestry, with the founding of Terraprima SA, a local agri-forestry business. From 2000, Luis has developed experience in environmental impact assessment and mitigation by participating in various public infrastructures projects. Luis joined WWF in 2005 through the WWF Mediterranean Program office. He has been a part of the WWF International Forest Team since 2007 and was also a member of the Board of Directors of FSC Portugal between 2008 and 2012.