Planted forests

Planted forests include all forests established through human planting or deliberate seeding (see definitions). From our forests we need goods such as timber and non-timber forest products, and ecosystem services, such as wildlife protection, carbon sequestration, and soil and watershed maintenance. By managing them well and applying good practices, planted forests can help achieve these all of these objectives.

As the human population will grow by 30 percent over the next two decades, land must be managed more effectively to meet societal needs. Planted forests can help by efficiently producing forest goods, and by quickly restoring ecosystem functions in degraded lands. As the United Nations specialized agency responsible for sustainable use of forests and land, FAO has an important role not only in facilitating technical improvements in planted forest, but also in setting and implementing norms for usage.

Areas of Work

• Improving the efficient production of wood from plantations through technical exchange and technical assistance
• Encouraging fair access to the benefits of planted forests through the creation of standards and by providing technical assistance to associations of family farmers.
• Supporting emerging work on the resilience of mixed-species plantations and planted forests to support ecological restoration

Planted forests are a component of a landscape strategy to produce the ecosystem goods and services that can assist to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The right mix of land-use types depends on societal objectives and needs, the limits of the land, the political and business environment, and the management tools available. FAO assists organizations and governments to ensure the planted forests of today and tomorrow balance societies’ needs for food security, biodiversity, and healthy productive environments.