The Global Forest Sector: An Analytical Perspective

Dykstra, D.P. & Binkley, C.S. (1987). The Global Forest Sector: An Analytical Perspective. IIASA Executive Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: ER-87-014

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Abstract

The world's forests, like its oceans and atmosphere, are global resources. Tree-covered landscapes blanket large parts of every major land mass except Antarctica and contribute to the well being of every individual on earth. Properly managed, they provide a myriad of products -- from medicinal plants to cooking fuel to building materials to fine papers to special chemicals that serve as a base for plastics and other synthetic products. Reservoirs of enormous genetic diversity, forests comprise the habitats for a large share of the Earth's 10 million species of living things. Forests cleanse the air we breathe and the water we drink. It is not too much to say that the health of the forests underlies the health of mankind itself. Yet this global resource, and the multitude of products derived from it, have rarely been studied from a global perspective.

In 1980, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) organized its Forest Sector Project (FSP) precisely to examine this global resource from a global perspective. This five-year project developed a computer-based model of the world's forest sector -- forest resources, conversion processes, and international trade in forest products -- and examined the global effects of national resource, industry, and trade policies. In addition to a small core team of scientists at IIASA, the FSP included a collaborative network of over 300 scientists, managers, and policymakers. Besides the model itself, one of the important products of that collaboration was a book entitled "The Global Forest Sector: An Analytical Perspective." This report is a synopsis of that book.

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