Primary production: Forestry

Forests cover about 30% of the Earth’s total land area, harbouring most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and containing almost as much carbon as the atmosphere. They have many functions, providing livelihoods for more than a billion people, and are of high relevance for biodiversity conservation, soil and water protection, supply of wood for energy, construction and other applications, as well as other bio-based resources and materials such as food and feed. The forestry sector was the first to adopt a sustainability concept (cf. Carlowitz), and sustainable use and management of forests remains an important issue to this day. Forestry is a multifunctional bioeconomic system and has an important function in securing the sustainable resource base for the present and future bioeconomy.