INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FORESTS 2023 “Healthy forests for healthy people” Opening Remarks

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FORESTS 2023

“Healthy forests for healthy people”

Opening Remarks 

By 

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

21 March 2023

 

Excellences, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Dear Colleagues,

 

Good morning from Rome!

Today we celebrate International Day of Forests 2023 as we face many challenges.
 

The climate crisis is intensifying, and we are off track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. As we start to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework, biodiversity loss is threatening food security. Poverty, hunger and inequality persist, and we are off track to achieve the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.
 

To meet our global goals, we need collective, efficient, coherent, rapid and impactful solutions – now! Forests provide many of the responses we need for this rapid and effective action.

Without healthy forests we do not have healthy people or a healthy planet.

Forests are the source of food and nutrition for nearly 1 billion people. They tackle climate change by storing carbon, and contributing to adaptation and resilience, and they are the source of 50 000 plant species with healing properties.

Today, FAO has a message about the Copaiba Tree, the indigenous trees of Latin America, which I got to know have special medicinal properties. We produce a lot of traditional medicines from herbs and trees. Not only in Latin America, but also in Europe, in Asia, in China, in India, and also in the Arab countries. Traditionally, we use a lot of the herbs and the trees for healing pain and for many traditional diseases, for which a long time ago our ancestors found the solutions. We still need a lot of research and technology to explore the full potential of trees and herbs for the future.

Trees also help prevent the spilling over of pathogens from animals to humans, which is a leading cause of emerging infectious diseases and contributors to pandemics. They mitigate air pollution and cool our cities, and are essential to sustainable cities.

In short, forests are critical to human, animal, plant and ecosystem health, which are fundamental to our One Health approach. FAO has joined forces with the UN Environment Programme, the World Health Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health, under the Quadripartite. It is a key coordination mechanism, and next week we will have another meeting of the four Principals. And forests are an essential dimension of the Quadripartite One Health Joint Plan of Action.

Dear Colleagues, 

It is clear that we need to prioritize our forests and agri-forestry if we are to effectively transform our agrifood systems, but the data shows that we are not treating forests with the respect they deserve.

Between 2015 and 2020, we lost 10 million hectares of forests each year to deforestation, and climate change driven wildfires and natural disasters are an increasing problem.

We need to reverse this trend! We need to scale-up and accelerate action, now, and together.

We need strong commitments from governments, international organizations, the public and private sector, civil society, academia, and each of us individually.

We need to enhance forest restoration through sustainable forest management and restoration that provides benefits for people and the planet.

FAO’s programme in support of Africa’s Great Green Wall initiative aims to support this key objective, as it tackles the social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification across the driest areas of Africa by restoring the health of the land.

We also need decision-makers to commit to improved policies. FAO’s Green Cities Initiative shows how city leaders can promote urban greening and sustainable urban and peri-urban food production.

Today, I am delighted that for the first time the Mayor of Turin is participating in our celebration, which is an indication that not only the public and private sectors, and central governments have a role to play, but also local governments and local communities.

Since I started working with horticulture 40 years ago, I have seen how horticulture benefits the people that surround it.

In 1992, when I was studying in Wageningen, I saw how in the Netherlands even small areas and villages look like flower gardens showing that horticulture and forestry are not only for the preservation of large things.

Apart from reducing carbon emissions and producing more fresh air, forestry and horticulture should also benefit the local people, and that is why everyone should get on board and contribute!

And that is why the FAO Green Cities Initiative is so important – it is about more than just greening the cities and greening your environment, it is about building a new way of life. A new way forward for a green life and a green economy.

For that reason, I welcome you, Mayor of Turin, and others, to join the FAO Green Cities Initiative, because such practices improve public health, food security and access to green spaces for healthier lifestyles.

We need to create a harmonized society, in harmony with nature, living together in harmony with plants and animals, but to achieve this we need financial commitment, and to widen access to appropriate financial resources and instruments. 

This means investing in agroforestry initiatives that create green jobs, improve livelihoods, increase food security and improve nutrition and restore ecosystems. It also means funding research and innovation, and sharing data, good practices, and evidence-based technologies, while also valuing the knowledge and traditions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Many Indigenous People are still living the mountains, in the primitive or secondary primitive forests, or even in some remote rehabilitated forests. For them it is their sky, it is their real home. It is different from living in the city.

Dear Friends of the Forests,

Through a concerted global effort, we can reduce deforestation and forest degradation, improve forest resilience, and enhance the ecosystem that is important for people and the planet.   

Let’s make forests the fundamental value of our vision for more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agrifood systems, because without agroforests it is not the world we want to design for our future.

For a greener and healthier future with Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life for all – the Four Betters that depend on our forests and agroforests first.

For a vivid future that leaves no one behind! Let’s work on this by planting trees – every day, every week, every year!

Thank you.