Forestry in the Midst of Global Changes

Forestry today, like many other sectors that traditionally rely on material goods, faces significant global drivers of societal change that are less often addressed than the environmental concerns commonly in the spotlight of scientific, political, and news media. There are three major interconnected issues that are challenging forestry at its foundation: urbanization, tertiarization, and globalization. These issues are at the core of this book.

The urbanization of society, a process in development from the first steps of industrialization, is particularly significant today with the predominance and quick growth rate of the world’s urban population. Ongoing urbanization is creating new perspectives on forestry, inducing changes in its social representation, and changing lifestyles and practices with a tendency toward dematerialization. The process of urbanization is also creating a disconnect and in some ways is leaving behind rurality, the sector of society where forestry has traditionally developed and taken place over centuries.

The second issue covered in this book is the tertiarization of the economy. In society today, the sector of services largely dominates the economy and occupies the major part of the world’s active population. This ongoing process modifies professional modalities and ways of life and opens new doors to forests through the immaterial goods they provide. It also profoundly changes the framework, rules, processes, means of production, exchanges between economic factors, and the processes of innovation.

The third issue is undoubtedly globalization in its economic, political, and social components. Whether it’s through bridging distances, crossing borders, accelerating changes, standardizing practices, leveling hierarchical structures, or pushing for interdependence, globalization impacts everyone, everywhere in multiple ways. Forestry is no exception.

focuses on these global drivers of change from the perspective of their relationships with how society functions. By analyzing them in depth through multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and even transdisciplinary approaches, this book is helping to design the forestry of tomorrow.

Book Title – Forestry in the midst of global changes (ed. by Christine FARCY, Inazio MARTINEZ de ARANO and Eduardo ROJAS-BRIALES)

– Editors

Christine FARCY

Earth and Life Institute

Environmental Sciences (ELI-e)

University of Louvain (UCL)

Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Holder of a MSc. agricultural Engineer - forest and water at UCL (1994) and a PhD in agricultural sciences and biological engineering at UCL (2005). Currently senior researcher, invited lecturer and international forest policy advisor. Expertise in forestry, national & international forest policy, forest planning, remote sensing, information systems, bridge between social and natural sciences, and science and policy cross-fertilization. Currently chair of the European Forestry Commission of FAO, vice-chair of FAO Committee on Forestry, vice-chair of the board of the European Forest Institute (EFI), vice-chair of the scientific committee of ONF (France), member of the scientific committee of AgroParisTech (France), member of the scientific council of ECOFOR (France). Chair or member of international evaluation panels and reviewer of scientific disciplinary and inter-disciplinary journals.

Inazio MARTINEZ de ARANO

Mediterranean Regional Office

European Forest Institute (EFI)

Barcelona, Spain

Inazio Martínez de Arano is Head of Office at EFIMED since June 2013. He holds a degree in Ecology (Basque Country University), a post-degree in Landscape management (Polytechnic University of Valencia) and a M.Sc. in Forestry (Universidad Austral de Chile). He has worked in forest research (sustainable forest operations) and has served as President of the Union of forest owners of southern Europe, following policy and market developments in Europe and active at multilateral policy forums (Forest Europe, UNECE COFFI, Silva-Mediterranea, EU’s civil dialogue). His current focus is in understanding the challenges and opportunities for innovating in the Mediterranean bioeconomy.

Eduardo ROJAS-BRIALES

Higher Technical School of Agronomic Engineering and the Natural Environment (ETSIAMN)

Polytechnic University of Valencia

Valencia, Spain

Holder of a MSc. Forestry at the University of Freiburg (1985) and a PhD Forestry at Polytechnical University. Forest inventory and management at Deutsche Forstservice GmbH (1988-90), Director of the Catalan Forest Owner's Association and Spanish representative at the CEPF (1992-1998), Associated Professor at the University of Lleida (1994-2000), Leader of the forest policy group at CTFC (1996-99), Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of EFI (1998-2002), Forest consultant SILVAMED S.L. (1999-2003), Professor at the Polytechnical University of Valencia/UPV (2003-2010, 2016-), Vice-dean at the Life Sciences Faculty/UPV (2004-10), Assistant Director-General and Head of the Forestry Department at FAO (2010-15), Chair of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (2010-15), Co-chair of UNREDD (2014), UN Commissioner General for Expo Milano 2015 (2013-2015), Chair of the Spanish MSc Forestry Board (2016-), Member of the PEFC International Board (2016-).