Ten Million

That’s the number of jobs the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization  (FAO) said that investing in sustainable forest management could create worldwide.

According to a recent study by the International Labour Organization, unemployment worldwide could increase from 179 million in 2007 to 198 million in 2009, it could go as high as 230 million.

“As more jobs are lost due to the current economic downturn, sustainable forest management could become a means of creating millions of green jobs, thus helping to reduce poverty and improve the environment,” says Jan Heino, Assistant Director-General of FAO’s Forestry Department.

Download Jan Heino’s message of how a greener economy will help everyone.

World Forest Week

The main thrust of World Forest Week, March 16-20 in Rome will be meeting society’s changing demand for forest-derived goods and services through improved forest management. Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, will deliver the keynote address, stressing the critical role of forests in society’s response to the challenges posed by climate change. The meeting takes place against the backdrop of an unprecedented global economic crisis. A crisis, which has also severely affected the forest sector.

Improved forest management and new tree planting could significantly reduce the downward trend in forest cover in many countries, thereby reducing carbon emissions from land-use change. According to the FAO, improved forest management has the potential to “have a larger positive impact on climate change than any other initiative currently being planned or considered by world leaders.”

Willie Smits – People, Profit, Planet

Willie Smits has done just that shown the way to transitioning back to forests in Indonesia. His organization, Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) International, has created 3,000 jobs through reforestation at Samboja Lestari in East Kalimantan. His district had been deforested because of the desire for palm oil to make bio-diesel (download a BOS report on the threat from palm oil). Due to Smits, it’s no longer the poorest district and biodiversity has increased.

Watch him speak in this TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) video. Be careful, if you keep your computer in your lap hold onto it because you will want to give him a standing ovation at the end.