UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UNECE Press Conference - Forests of North America, Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia

Good afternoon, colleagues, and thank you for joining us for the, this press conference on the launch of the 2020, 2025 Forest Profile for North America, Europe, the Caucasus in Central Asia.

This is a report we're publishing only every five years.

So it's a, it's a milestone we have with us 3 distinguished speakers, which will I, I will introduce right, right now.

But before, let me say just two quick things.

Forests are key assets in addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

And 2nd, when we read about forest in the news, usually it's mostly about deforestation.

But as you will hear from our distinguished speaker, the panorama in the UNEC region is quite different.

And this is one of the one of the interesting points in this report.

And the the our three experts will will tell you many, many details and from that on many angles.

So without further ado, let me introduce our speakers.

We have on my left, Paul Adeda that many of you know, the director of the Forest, Land and Housing Division at UNECE.

Next we will have a Roman Michalak, experts in our UNEC forest and by your economy section who is stepping for Professor Cole, who unfortunately fell sick earlier this week and regrets not to be able to take part in this in this launch.

And he was the lead author, but Roman was very much involved in the preparation of the report.

So you can, you can rely on him for bringing you the, the main outcome of the, the main findings.

And then last but not least, we've got with us Kathy Abuso, President and CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

I will, we will hear the statements from our speakers and then as usual, I will open the floor for questions from you and from the other ones participating online.

Then without further ado, let me give the floor to the first speaker, Paola Dida.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much and good morning everybody.

Thank you for being here.

What you heard about the title 2025 Forest Profile for Europe, North America, the Caucasus, Central Asia, so really covering the entire UNISI area report produced every five years and thus offering also the most comprehensive picture of the state of forest in the region.

This report tells 2 important stories.

First of all, the UNISI region is home to 42% of the world's forest ecosystems, which are essential for biodiversity, climate regulation and human well-being in general.

Over the past three decades, we have achieved remarkable progress in the region.

Forest area has grown by 60 million hectares, comparable to the area of France.

So a growth of the area of France in forest coverage, Carbon storage also has increased by 11%, more than 300 million hectares the size of India.

Just to give you an idea of forests now benefit from legal protection in our region.

These achievements are the result of sustained long term work by countries over the last three decades, but also of the international cooperation amongst countries, institutions and stakeholders.

Hence, really a testament to the power of multilateralism.

The second story though, is about emerging challenges.

Climate change and related disturbances are placing increasing pressure on forest ecosystems.

Wildfires, pests and draw out are causing unprecedented damage.

12.6 million hectares burned in a single year, comparable to an area of Greece, and 73,000,000 hectares, comparable to the area of Spain and Portugal, together are affected by insects and diseases.

If these trends continue, forests that have been a vital carbon sink could become a source of emissions, undermining global climate goals.

Positive developments observed so far can be attributed to sustainable forest management, which will continue to play a crucial role in the future, of course.

However, the future of forests, vital for, as we said, combating climate change, preserving biodiversity and supplying countless goods and services also depends on actions beyond beyond the forest sector.

This is why multilateralism again and cross sector cooperation are essential.

We have seen this work before, decades ago.

Acid rain pose a serious threat to forests in Central Europe.

Through coordinated efforts under the Convention on Long Range Transbounding, air pollution of ECE countries came together and successfully tackled the problem at its source.

That experience demonstrates what is possible when we act collectively.

The five year forest profile is more than a report is a tool for policy makers.

It also provides the evidence needed to design timely science based responses.

And as we look ahead at COP 30 in Belem, the message is clear, Forest must be integrated into global climate strategies.

So today, I just want to leave you with two key messages from my end.

Number one, our progress is significant, but it's not guaranteed.

Continued cooperation and proactive measures are essential to maintain forests as a cornerstone of climate and biodiversity solutions.

And two, forests are not just an environmental or economic resource.

They are central to global carbon security and economic resilience.

Protecting them means protecting our shared future.

Thank you so much and back to you Jean.

Thank you very much Paula for this, for painting the the scene and highlighting some of the some of the findings of the report and and the main policy messages.

I will now hand the floor to Rahman Michalak for a more in depth diving into some of the some of the findings of the report.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Jan and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

It's my pleasure to present to you the 2025 forest profile like comprehensive report on state of forest across Europe, North America, Caucasus and Central Asia, which is actually the UNEC United Nations Economic Commission for Europe region.

As you can hear, the The UNEC region is home to 1.76 billion hectares of forest, representing 42% of the global total.

This forest span 3 biomes, boreal, temperate and subtropical, and are among the most extensive on the planet.

While biodiversity may be less rich than that of tropical forest, their resilience in harsh conditions, northern conditions makes them vital for global climate regulation, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

So let's begin with a look at the big picture.

We already heard that the global forest cover is over 4 billion hectares.

However, since 1990, the world lost 200 million hectares and it is an area spanning from Scandinavia to Mediterranean, from Portugal to Ukraine.

So it's a huge, enormous area that was lost for some from that time.

Fortunately, the UNEC region tells us different story again as we heard, because since 1990 forest area here increased about 60 million hectares and this growth, what is most important, occurred across all sub regions of the UNEC region.

So now how natural are these forests?

So nearly half of world primary forest are located in the UNEC region with the vast majority in the Russian Federation, the United States and Canada.

The region hosts hundreds of three species.

Maybe it is not much if we compare to 70 thousand of three species in the world.

However, this species are essential for maintaining biodiversity, especially in the boreal region, which as I was already mentioned, features harsh conditions and this trees are pine, spruce, Burton large that dominate.

However, there are also southern parts of the region are much richer in in this regard.

Importantly, 92% of forests in the UNEC region regenerate naturally, which is also maybe not well known fact which usually assume our region to be planted.

[Other language spoken]

As I said, most of them are naturally regenerating.

Let us talk about the growth, the total growing stock.

The volume of wood in living trees is 260 billion cubic metres.

And this is enough to just imagine to fill 8 billion shipping containers, which if lined up, would circle the equator 12,000 times.

Since 1990, this volume has increased about 63 billion cubic metres and in this time between 1990 and 2023, 44 billion cubic metres of wood were harvested.

So this means that on the half of the timber that grew in this forest was harvested and this balance is a clear indicator of sustainable forest management and indicator that forests in the region are not over exploited.

So now let us look at who owns this forest and how they are managed.

81% of UNC forests are publicly owned, the figure which is higher than the global average.

Ownership structures vary widely out from almost all forests publicly owned in the eastern and and western part of the region.

However, only 40% of central region are owned public.

83% of forest 1.4 billion hectares are under management protection plants.

Of the 800 hundred million hectares of legally protected forest worldwide, over 300 million hectares are in the UNEC region, which makes 40% of the global total.

44% of forest area is managed primarily for wood and non wood products.

But this so-called productive production forests also nowadays serve many functions.

This is a place of recreation.

They also preserve and maintain, support biodiversity.

They at the same time are used for timber production.

So 6% of forests are dedicated to biodiversity conservation and 11% of forest to soil and water protection, which gives you, I hope, some perspective on how versatile forest management is nowadays.

So now let's talk about the carbon and UNEC forests are major sync, storing around half of all carbon found in global forests, so they absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide and store it in biomass and salts, helping to mitigate climate change.

The carbon stock in UNEC forest has steadily increased since 1990 by about 30 giga tonnes, although some countries have recently reported decline.

Healthy forests are more resilient to threats and recover more quickly from disturbances.

Unfortunately, recent decays have seen increasing challenges.

Climate change has intensified storms, wildfires and insect outbreaks.

In 2023, only Canada experienced the worst wildfire season, burning over 50 million hectares.

Droughts and pests heavily have drastically increased 3 mortality rates and in 9/20/1973 million hectares about 5% of regions area was reported as affected by biotic and diabetic factors.

Looking back over the past 30 years, UNEC forest has developed positively.

However, recent trends are are alarming.

We don't know how fast climate change will progress and how forest will respond.

What do we know is that the risk are growing and we have to be prepared for that.

We have faced similar changes to some extent before.

In 1990s, European forests were threatened by widespread, widespread decline due to acid rains, and UNEC responded to that threat by establishing a forest monitoring systems but also convention that addressed the district at roots.

It's a convention that limited transboundary air pollution and successfully address this issue.

Thanks to that I think that we can enjoy forest that we can see in our region among other reasons.

So today the UNICE is all once again called up until it.

We must intensify forest monitoring across borders and this report lays foundation for that effort.

In closing, we hope that insights from this report will support informed decision making and faster collaboration to say that our forest for future generations.

So thank you very much for your attention and I invite you to explore the report and further data to deeper understand the challenges, trends and functions for us in the UNEC Region service.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Roman.

We will now turn to Miss Kathy Abusho for zooming in on North America.

Please, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much.

On behalf of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, I'm happy to be with you here today welcoming the release of this important UNEC report, the 2025 Forest Profile.

By presenting the assessment of UNEC Forest, the report aims to inform the public, policy makers and stakeholders about these forests, the need for their sustainable forest management and the importance of this forest resource to the people, economy and our planet.

The report is really important because it doesn't just include statistics, it is targeted for public consumption and policy maker consumption.

It explains important key principles, which I think is is a really nice direction that's been taken.

As the CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, I'm going to share some of my perspectives for North America.

I just wanted to share who this sustainable forestry initiative is first.

So we're a bi national nonprofit charitable organisation operating in the Canada and the US and we're endorsed.

We, we set standards for sustainable forest management and we're endorsed by Pfc, which is also located here in in Geneva.

And we're responsible for over half of PF CS global forest certifications.

We're also international members of the IUCN as well as national members of the IUCN in Canada and the US And so we focus a lot on advancing sustainability for forest focus collaboration.

And many of the statistics in the report certainly reflect our understanding of the state of the forest.

So first of all, as as Roman has mentioned, ECE W is noted in the report on several occasions.

It's broken down by regions.

And when you see ECE W, it's referring to Canada and the US and that region holds 37% of the UNE CS regions total growing forest stock, the force that are growing.

And that's there's good news in that that the growing stock averages are increasing around the world including the UNECE area of EC West.

And that would indicate that our forests are being managed sustainably and despite significant challenges and healthy resilient force are critical to our economies, to our people, to our human health and well-being, to communities.

But there's worrying trends in the report.

This report takes us to the end of 2021 and the worrying trends are that that come towards the end of that reporting period in 2021, and that's when it comes to catastrophic wildfires and pests.

For example, in the reporting period for 20/21, which was the worst year for the EC region with 12.6 million hectares of forest affected by fire, so 12.6 million hectares affected by fire for the total EC region in 2021.

That's when the reporting date ends.

However, if you just take a country like Canada where I live that I'm familiar with, our 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive ever recorded with approximately 15,000,000 hectares burned normally.

According to the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers dated National Forest database, about 2 million hectares burn every year.

So 15,000,000 hectares burned in 2023 S of the border in the US.

We had unprecedented drought induced beetle, pine beetle flare up, causing, you know, the loss of millions of, of trees and, and, and forest across the area.

So what does this tell us?

We've been doing a good job of managing our forest, but climate change is impacting our forest at new rates, at, at, at, at sometimes at catastrophic rates.

So it means we need to really focus more on managing our forest to make first of all to prevent wildfire and in terms of catastrophic wildfire that is, and make our forest more climate resilient.

And for SFI, we're working at about over across 160 million hectares and applying some SFI climate smart forestry requirements to promote principles and practises that will address the risk of climate change, will assess the risk and then address, address the risk.

And that includes both from climate mitigation and climate adaptation and, and, and so these are important things for us to be doing.

And it's important for policymakers as well to be really considering how can they collaborate, how can we look at monitoring and support responsible climate resilient forest management.

And we've been evolving our programme in this way.

And we're thankful for funding from the Canadian government, US and the Doris Duke Foundation to advance these measures.

And there was good discussions earlier today at these UNEC meetings about the need for for large scale monitoring to really assess where forests are most vulnerable so that we can put limited resources to forests that are at at the most stressed and at the greatest risk and and to try to minimise the impacts of climate change.

So I just wanted to thank the the authors of the report, thank the UNEC for putting this report out here as as well to share because I think force are a nature based solution and force are a renewable resource and force are a future for the bioeconomy.

Force currently are a carbon sink.

However, we need to care for a forest and we need the public understanding that sustainable forest management, which includes harvesting trees, is part of the solution to making our forest more resilient.

And so this is the beginning of a conversation, I think that we need to have to really modify public understanding of the need for forest management and why it's important to manage our forest, to have resilient forest into the future that support our clean air, our clean water, our economy, our people and our planet.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Mrs Buso.

Now comes the time to open the floor for questions.

The first one here from Radio France International.

Please go ahead, Jeremy.

[Other language spoken]

The first question is, can I get an answer in French yes or no?

Yes, yes, I, I will ask the question in English and if you can respond in French, that's that's that's brilliant.

If not, English will do fine.

[Other language spoken]

If I understand correctly, where the forest in the UNESC region is, is still growing but at a slower pace now and the risk is that we'll the forest will will not be able to absorb carbon as it as it did.

So I'd like to understand how can you explain the the apparent discrepancy between the fact that the forest is growing, but that this forest will not be able to absorb carbon emissions as it did.

That's the first one.

The second one will be more the questions about the the question about the, the what we see here, especially in the Alps where we see trees dying by the thousands because of a particular insect typograph scalded in in in, in in French.

[Other language spoken]

It's at the European spruce bog beetle.

But basically what can be done in the apps to to prevent trees from from dying if there's any solution.

Key key family panellist of Roman in English, Roma in English.

Unfortunately, OK, English is fine Let's go in English on prefer the response of Francais play on bilateral situation.

So go ahead Roman, thank you very much for this question.

I think it's a key one of the key aspects of raising this industry port.

So the problem of absorption of CO2 and the fact that that that forests were became a net emitter of of does not mean that they will not absorb.

What we express in this way is that the net result of forest functioning as a source and sink and carbon sink.

So forest when when growing they absorb carbon, but at the same time due to removals, due to damages, due to natural mortality, also they release carbon.

And this capacity of forest of course is not endless to absorb.

No, they cannot grow ever till till forever, at least under, under some conditions.

And as we observe in the last years, the growth of forests, they are coming to a, to a, to a, to a slowly, depends on the country, on the system, to a moment where this growth simply cannot be continued forever.

So older forests, however, they contain a lot of carbon, they don't have such capacity to absorb, which for example younger ones.

And if it is then connected with damage which release carbon.

In this case, the carbon that is absorbed by forest is exceeded by the carbon which is released by forest.

So unless until we report growth, growth of forests carbon is not absorbed.

Question is that in some countries we already noticed that this turn into source and carbon now is released.

So they this forest became became the source of of the source of carbon.

And actually they release more than than than they absorb.

Of course it's it's quite complicated.

It depends on on many, many factors.

This, however, what we observe now is the result of process that continued not only the last 30 years, but already earlier.

But it is also one of the consequences of having forests older and also more voluminous.

I know it's a it's a bit more complicated.

I hope that was able to to to explain so.

But anyway, as long as they grow means that carbon is absorbed.

But there is still this indication from some countries shows that there is a risk that that it may turn especially when forest damage exceeds natural kind of levels.

[Other language spoken]

If it goes beyond was already said by by by Cathy that that was fires in Canada where I think more than five times bigger than than than average national average.

If this goes this way, it it may happen that simply this this this emissions way way exceed growth.

And if you wanted to, so you wanted to add something to this, yes, just in a few sentences, The forest growing is definitely not the problem.

It really is the catastrophic events that put things at risk.

So the catastrophic wildfire, like fire itself is good, Prescribed burns are good, cultural burns are good.

They actually help reduce the risk of catastrophic fire.

So not all fire is bad, but it's just when we have this significant events happening more frequently and at larger scales causing greater greenhouse gas emissions, therein lies the risk.

But there is a solution if we can manage our forest.

That's why I'm talking about standard forest management.

If we can manage our forest in sort of climate informed ways, thinning our forest, building our forest when we're restoring them to reflect the environment that they're in.

If they're in a more drought ridden environment, then looking at drought resistant species so that we will they'll be able to be more resilient to future impacts.

So forest management really is the key to addressing this and ensuring that our carbon, you know, that our forests continue to serve as a as a carbon sink as opposed to a carbon source because of catastrophic wildfire.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, turning to the Ladusian question, Roman, the second question on the Alps and the insects and the insects.

Yes, I think that this the problem you mentioned of this of this bark beetle and spruce decline is a problem that we observe across the across the across whole Europe.

And I think it's a very good like another example of what can be done, what can be done in and that's true that that this conditions caused the, the, the massive decline of spruce.

And there are two ways so at least two ways of of of dealing with this problem in terms of active forest management.

It this methods applied remove infected trees and try to limit expansion of this of this of this beetle and by this maintain other trees leaving.

However, there is also other approach which allows nature to act.

However, and what is important in this case that both both approaches they they have some some objectives important consequences.

If trees are are are are left and to die, then consequently they cause the release of absorbed carbon in some time.

And this is what we're talking about, about the decline that in in this case, of course, forest is not, of course, but it's a very likely forest return.

However, in terms of nature, nature have what probably humans, but they don't have, which means space and time it it may happen in, in, in 100 years.

Also the the required time that will be new generation, however the current one will be gone.

I think what what is applied in active forest management is is trying to first monitor then to, to, to to counteract.

And also other part is the approach to infected wood which can be also used as a renewable material when removed.

So there are different strategies.

This depends on the managerial objective.

However, the truth is also that this decline of spruce is observed and we may also expect that this will continue with other species in the future.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, quick follow up, you, you mentioned countries that already became net emitters in terms of the forest.

Can you name those countries or not?

[Other language spoken]

So I think that nice, the, the most obviously visible example recently published was Germany and they they they reported decline of of the growing stock after after the recent inventory also Portugal and Estonia.

They also reported decrease of, of, of the carbon, many other countries actually they still continue to, to report positive.

However, we also observed the, the slowdown of pace of increase.

So this is also other stuff.

And in fact, you know, this, this carbon saturation and and then possible decrease was I think we mentioned about 10 years ago with our, our paper with Professor Gertian Nabours and also Paula Deda that signalled this risk for carbon saturation.

And in this context also, I think it's worth to say that some brave decisions may also take into account temporal decrease of carbon.

Because if if in terms of because alternative keeping overgrowth trees and forests will cause will bring additional cost.

They will also increase further risk that would be could contribute to increasing the farther farther danger.

And in case of keeping a structure of forest more balanced, also allowing younger, younger, younger generations to to to to regenerate to come to replace also may need some temporal decrease on and and removing some parts of tree.

But again, this is not a kind of a general advice.

It always demands special consideration depending conditions, objectives and and then situation in particular area.

However, sometimes this, this should be considered in terms of the long term sustainability, A temporal decrease of current, current volumes of carbon.

Roman turning to the room.

[Other language spoken]

And then we've got 2 questions.

Two hands raised online.

So we'll move online after, after Robin.

[Other language spoken]

Thinking about the, the forthcoming COP summit, which is on many people's minds, what can the COP negotiators learn from this report?

And secondly, and probably more importantly, what would you actually like to see those negotiators do in the light of this report?

[Other language spoken]

Who wants to answer that, Paula?

First I can start and then I have my colleagues adding that.

Just just to finish maybe on, on this carbon storage and this paper that was published 10 years ago, what the paper highlighted for the Central Europe states was really that there was an old stock of trees and it was the age of trees that was really linked with this limited carbon absorption.

So hence what also my colleagues said, maybe some brave decisions sometimes are needed because it's young trees, of course, that have a higher absorption power.

It's sometimes very emotional to talk about this.

And so also when we suggest that when we come to bring this, this information, we're immediately labelled as either those who want to cut down trees or those that want to.

But it's not that, you know, we have to really to look at science here if we really want to do a good job on COP.

Well, I think this, this report should bring a very important message.

And we, we said when we highlight it's 42% of the, it's 42.

I mean, it's not only tropical forest, the largest forest country in the world, it's not Brazil, it's Russia.

So this is our first message said, OK, although the COP in is in Brazil and although the COP in this instead of the Southern Hemisphere, the forest of the Northern Hemispheres have a crucial importance when it comes to climate.

Now how to take so it it's more first this, this is the message Look North as well, not it's, I wouldn't say it's half and half is 42 versus the rest, but OK, it's it's a lot and we don't have Japan in that.

And so overall we will go 5050.

So it's responsibility shared, but also for its shared what negotiators to do.

It's very difficult how they can translate this report into a decision in a direct way.

But I think that over the years the attention to forests in corps has been lost and the technicalities of the discussion of the decision have taken over in the past and have been in long time around.

So I've been in the first COPS, there was a lot of attention to forests.

There were forest days, there were events dedicated to forest.

This has been a sort of fading away and we hope that our report together with the intention of the host country to bring forests at the centre of the table and the discussion with with which actually achieved the goal of of highlighting that you cannot talk about climate, climate solutions, climate mitigation, climate adaptation without talking about forests, that they're central maybe.

And sure, Kathy, some additions to that.

Yes, as I'd actually like to mention that on page 39 of the report, I feel has some great policy ideas that can be elevated at COP.

It's how sustainable forest management can support forest health and vitality.

And it talks about monitoring and and assessment and that regularly measuring forest conditions helps detect early signs of stress, enabling prompt interventions.

I think a global monitoring system that allowed us to really see which forests are most stressed and focus again our limited resources in that area could could be very effective.

It also in on page 39 talks about restoration and reforestation and that enhancing biodiversity means promoting close to nature, species composition structures, the need to restore degraded areas, improve soil and water conditions and revitalise ecosystem functions.

There's policy that can provide incentives to do that.

There's dollars that that that, that can be brought to this, but this is expensive work to to invest as well and force this way and to have some of these opportunities to make a force more resilient.

It's actually wonderful that by being able to manage your force, you can get a return from that force that can help be invested back into the resiliency of those forests.

And so I think what policymakers can do as well is simply understand that markets are important to our forest health and resiliency.

And so creating open markets and allowing trade on on forest products will help keep our forest products sector thriving, which in turns helps keep communities thriving and allows revenue from those activities to be reinvested in the forest.

When we have declining markets, we have a construction of the sector, we have communities that suffer and we don't have the resources, frankly to put back into the resource, our most important resource, the forest, so I do.

Understanding the, the the role of open markets is, is quite important and then sustainable management, ecosystem resiliency practises that policy makers can recognise again that harvesting and removal is harvesting trees and removal of excessive Deadwood can really support our forest sector and allowing many regeneration practises as well.

But there's many more items that are covered off on page 39 of the report and how sustainable forest management can be supported for forest health and vitality that I think is literally a page that policy makers can take a look at.

[Other language spoken]

And let's move now to the questions that are being raised online.

If I can ask the colleagues managing the access to.

Sorry, I didn't see who was first in the online question.

So if you can give the floor to Lawrence Hero and Isabel Sacco, please.

Yeah, that's Laurel.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks for the press conference.

[Other language spoken]

I know that might be a difficult exercise, but given the current trends, if nothing changes, are you able to tell us first when we should expect the the forest of the whole region to become carbon net emitters?

And secondly, so for now, the the forests are still growing, but the pace has slowed down.

Will there be given the steel again, given the current trends, will there be a time when the forests are expected to to decline and can we anticipate when that will be?

Thank you, Laura, who wants to answer that?

Roman, again, I think you answered part of it.

You answered part of it in your answer.

But let's let's let's go back to that, please.

[Other language spoken]

In this, this is a really unpredictable to say in the very categoric way when this happens and if this happens first, is this what what we mentioned earlier is that this changing conditions, we don't it a lot depends on the future conditions and and if climate change conditions go according to this most drastic scenarios this this could could result.

But again, in this case, we don't know.

We don't know how, whether how this happened.

What I would like to say that it is not necessarily it must happen.

And I think this is also this this this turn into net net source depends on many decisions what actually Paul and Kathy were talking about.

And it's also important to say that this role of a forest as, as this engine that absorb carbon is important, but way, way more important is the role of a forest as, as holder as of, of, of carbon that exists in, in, in current ecosystems.

And I think even if this forests are not either emitters or, or or or source of carbon, the most important is to, to keep the current potential and the current reserve war that is in, in, in, in forest.

So we also develop so-called forest sector outlook that also take into account takes into account different climate scenarios and the outlook is until 2040.

And I think it shows that not necessarily this forest should turn into Internet net net sink.

However, with all all this, all this conditions that that this may should happen should happen that we are really really beyond that make well beyond our our control and our our possibilities.

Thank you, Jean, if my my add something and this is really a request to you, the journalist, right?

It depends very much also how we talk about forests, because if you, if you pass a message that we are doomed, that there is nothing to do and we are destined to deforestation or to be net emitters, then also the role of the United Nations and multilateralism is limited.

What we should say is that there is an urgency and indeed a need for more work of countries together so that the forests don't become netometers, they will still come, keep growing and really that sustainable forest management will continue to be a proper practise in the region.

And I hope this is the message that also comes across through our report.

[Other language spoken]

We are reporting facts to you.

But of course, what we are saying is that there are the threats.

This it's interesting this, this, you know, dual kind of message.

The forests are growing, but also the threats are growing.

Hence, really the need for the UN and for multilateral bodies like ours to come together to address this matters together and and learn also from the success stories.

I think also one important part of the report and it's, it's easy to read with a lot of graphs and an important graph that it really also shows the share of forest area in the UNICE region.

When you look at different countries and you see the different forest coverage, it tells you a lot about the policies of these countries, how these countries have been protecting forests, but also used.

Have they?

They have been using them sustainably.

Obviously also there is a difference between northern Europe, where climate and a warmer climate might lead to faster growth and more species, versus other southern countries where desertification is also part of the equation.

And so the issue is, is more serious.

But overall that's that's my message that of course there is a need to continue to work on forests and the at the UN level, at the country level and and the cooperation in this sense is absolutely paramount.

[Other language spoken]

Can we move to the next question please from Isabel?

[Other language spoken]

There is something that is not clear to me is that the report indicates that wildfires destroy more than 12 million hectares in the region we are considering and in two in 2021 and there were another problems that affected another 73,000,000 hectares.

And I would like to know if the is, if the expansion of 60 million hectares take into account these losses, you know, because if these losses have not been taken into account, the balance could be negative then.

So if you could, you could clarify this and I have a second one.

Isn't the, if you, the person who is in charge of North America, if you are concerned that forest protection measures in the United States may be scaled back in favour of of certain economic activities or extractive activities, If you have seen any indication that this may happen?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Isabel Roman, you want to answer the first part in terms in terms of damage this this areas are taken into account when we report carbon losses and and the growing stock.

So, so whatever whatever is damaged by fires or bar by by by other reasons, natural mortality is included in in, in in the total balance.

So in terms of in terms of volume of biomass of of of carbon in terms of forest area, this damage causes different is effects forest to different extent.

And this however, growing stock is lost during due to this damage regeneration occurs.

And of course this forest return to to to to forest after restoration is done in terms in terms of carbon loss, yes, this loss is included in the in the total balance.

Who wants to say or who can say something about the the the last question, the question was on so that you want to repeat the question or should I rephrase it saying like what can somebody comment on?

Yes, yes, of course, yes.

If my question is what is if you are concerned that forest protection protection measures in the United States may be scaled back in favour of extractive activities.

If you have seen any indication that this may happen, I see.

[Other language spoken]

I think what's important it's, it's a really interesting question, not even in the context of the US, It's just an interesting question overall that we actually discussed in a panel that I moderated earlier today.

And, and it goes to a point that I, I made earlier as well.

The comment that came out in the panel by one of the panellists was in order to protect our forest, we need to manage our forest.

And and that's a really interesting concept because up until now we've been saying you either protect your forest or you manage your forest.

But because of these catastrophic events that are going on right now in terms of wildfire and drought and other things, whether it's on our protected forest areas like our parks or other places, we we do need to be managing those forests.

I spoke of all just use a Canadian contacts that Jasper, one of our jewels, a National Park really had catastrophic wildfire that eliminated so much of of that park and that had really negative benefits obviously for greenhouse gas emissions, but also for the wildlife, for the communities for so, so many.

And since then the public in the areas of those parks as well is wanting management of those parks so that they can withstand, which means some thinning of, of the trees, removal of excessive Deadwood, so that that's not like a fuel source for these fires to build on themselves, which is exactly what makes them catastrophic.

So it's, it was an interesting question.

It just takes me in a bit of a different direction then you probably intended me to go, which is we have to understand that all of our forests are at risk, are protected areas are at risk.

Our parks are at risk, are managed, forests are at risk and and we need to manage them all now and we need to manage them to prevent those those those catastrophic events.

It doesn't mean that they're everything's for timber production, that it definitely isn't what it's it, it it means, but it means that we have to get in there and we have to harvest, we have to thin, we have to remove debris.

We have to restore those forest parks, protected areas as well as our working forest in a way that they can be more resilient.

Looking at species migration, what species are we planting in areas as our climate is changing as well.

So really sustainable forest management is important, ensuring a balance so that we continue to have parks, protected areas and working forest.

They're all important.

[Other language spoken]

Paula, you wanted to yes, maybe to answer more directly the question.

And I think it's a concern on, on the role of the USAI will say that as you need see, we haven't seen any changes or lack of interest.

the US Forest Service has been always very active with us and also providing data and and assisting us.

They are by the way, part of a another study on boreal forest.

We also have the expert here in case you have specific question on that Biome and there is also an issue a specific study on the US boreal forest in case you're interested.

What our meeting then as you know the our Committee on Forest and the forest industry is ongoing as we speak was looking at was the issue of tariffs and how this can affect the trade of forest and forest products.

So that's a completely different area and issue, but that is something that obviously will affect the trade and the market.

And if you want results on that, I think check out our report and that there will be presentations and also data on on this.

It's not only the only things that will affect the market that there are other things and other bylaws such as the UDR that have an effect of course on the trade of forest products.

But and to answer your question whether we have perceived any changes, I can say no.

And you know, we, we remain engaged with the United States as well as other countries to continue to work on, on our forest reports as well activities.

[Other language spoken]

We're we're coming to close of the press conference.

I'm not seeing any further hands raised.

[Other language spoken]

If there is no last question, no, then thank you very much for your attention and thank you to our panellists and we can continue the conversation bilaterally after that if if some of you prefer that.

Thank you very much.

UNECE Press Conference - Forests of North America, Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia - report launch