IEFC wishes you a prosperous 2025
Last November ranked as the world’s second-warmest November on record after November 2023. If La Niña weather pattern forms in 2025 global temperatures could briefly cool, but this will not halt the warming trend or the occurrence of dangerous heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and tropical cyclones. Hence, climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainable development will remain critical challenges to be address in 2025, and for the foreseeable future. Last November also saw the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) take place in Baku, Azerbaijan. Carbon Markets were one of the key topics arising in the discussions, with a clear mandate to align with science to improve the accuracy in carbon accounting for trading purposes and enhance overall transparency. More than ever, Science and Policy interactions must be strengthened, as highlighted in the IUFRO2024 world congress conclusions.
Forests are central to assist climate change mitigation as forest products and services may be the solutions for many future challenges. In fact, the future is just around the corner, with attempts to transition away from fossil fuels and achieve climate neutrality by 2050, with a reduction of at least 55% greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels). There is a joint responsibility to remove carbon from the atmosphere, and to plan nature-based solutions for carbon capture and storage to achieve this reduction. Planted forests can enhance the terrestrial carbon sink, slowing the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere. Planting species mixtures often increases productivity, reduces disturbance impacts, and enhances biodiversity compared to monocultures. In the pursuit of diversity, a proposal for a new Task Force for further exploring the benefits of stand complexity to improve the resilience of both single and mixed species planted forests has been submitted. If successful, this Task Force, coordinated by the IEFC, will involve international and interdisciplinary collaborators, and will be certain to produce interesting and important conclusions. Keep your fingers crossed!
Most measures aimed at promoting carbon neutrality require the support of appropriate policies. Therefore, the strategy and future actions should include improving communication and developing interactions between science and policy, enabling politicians to adopt science-based policy decisions. Another vital step is to strengthen dialogue and collaboration to make research results available to stakeholders. IEFC is well positioned to promote science dissemination among stakeholders, given its involvement in various research projects. In 2024, IEFC embraced dissemination and communication activities, co-organizing events such as the 27th Session of “the International Commission on Poplars and Other Fast-Growing Trees”, and participating in conferences and project meetings. In addition, the IEFC has also promoted a wide interdisciplinary network, in Europe and abroad, allowing a global exchange of knowledge, supporting innovations and technologies to improve the development of sustainable solutions that meet economic, social and ecological requirements (check the webinars section on the IEFC website).
Finally, but importantly, in 2024 IEFC celebrated 25 years of plantation forestry research and support. Celebrations included networking and knowledge exchange with participants invited to a scientific seminar where a resilient approach to plantation forestry was presented, followed by a tour among trials and demonstration sites in Scotland guided by Bill Mason, who passed away the day after the meeting. Thank you, Bill, for your commitment and dedication to forestry.[1]
IEFC wishes you and planted forests, whether pure or mixed, a prosperous 2025!
[1] https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/news/139468-william-lorn-mason-dsc-ba-bsc-micfor/
Susana Barreiro, President of IEFC