Themes
Session 1. Forest Product Certification
Forest certification and forest sustainability are vital environmental and natural resource management matters. Forest certification is an eco-labeling scheme that recognizes forest products which originate from sustainably-managed forests but is not based on evaluating the end-product itself. There is a growing demand for a labeling program to identify wood produced under sustainable forestry principles. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) can be used for the evaluation of these principles for end products (e.g. wood as a building material). LCA can measure multiple environmental and social impacts ascribed to a product in support of a comprehensive and transparent labeling program. Workshop topic sessions include ecolabels such as environmental product declarations and environmental building declarations based on LCA and the role of LCA in forest certification in quantifying impacts.
Session 2. Ecosystem Services and Markets
Emerging markets for ecosystem services presents some new opportunities for forest landowners and managers. There is increasing recognition of the importance of ecosystem services markets and the values these services provide to landowners and managers. These emerging markets include carbon credits, water quality and quantity, wetland mitigation, species conservation banking and a number of habitats of value for forest landowners and managers. This session will assess emerging global themes for sustainable utilization of certified forest products including the process for bundling or combining markets to increase forestland value.
Session 3. Life Cycle Analysis
Life-cycle analysis assesses the potential impacts that resource extraction, production, distribution, use, and services have on the environment. This session covers the life-cycle assessment (LCA) on forest products and operations from cradle-to-grave, and links the carbon accounting metrics to LCA for sustainable design of wood systems including buildings and bridges and how green building standards and code incorporate LCA for accreditation and compliance. Topic sessions include, but not limited to, LCA for wood products, forest management, bioenergy, and emerging products from forest industry.
Session 4. Sustainable Forest Management and Certified Forestry
Sustainable forest management integrates ecological, economic and social considerations. These include managing, growing and harvesting forest products with the conservation of soil, water, wildlife habitat and socioeconomic benefits to meet society needs and the sustainability of forests to produce wood and other forest products. This session will broadly address emerging global themes for forest products and the role of forest certification to integrate wood production into forest management for multiple objectives. This session will specifically assess different aspects of forest certification including impacts on forest management and timber markets; quality of certification audits; governance and authority of certification schemes; partnerships between lands and public lands. The session provides a forum for researchers who study forest certification, economic and social benefits of certified forest products within the broad context of sustainable forest management.
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