www.unece.org/forests http://foresteurope.org

Promoting forest green jobs andthe social dimension of sustainableforest management in the FORESTEUROPE

Ludmila MarusakovaHead of the Liaison Unit Bratislava

FOREST EUROPE

Forest and Green Jobs Side Event - 12th Session of United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF12) - 4 May, New York

Linkage of FOREST EUROPE Work Programme Actions to regional and global forest related goals and targets

Forest Sector in the centre of GreenEconomy

Madrid Ministerial Declaration: 25 years together promoting SFM:

FE signatories reaffirmed the role and contribution of sustainably managed forests to the green economy by creating green jobs and improving human well-being and social equity, while improving FES and significantly reducing environmental risks.

Promote a forest sector and its related value chainthat provides society with increasing opportunitiesfor green jobs, which means that they are decentand connected to the management and use offorests and to environmentally friendlyproduction processes based on goods and services

from sustainably managed forests.

Madrid Ministerial Resolution 1

Forest Sector in the centre of GreenEconomy

Pan-European actions linked to green jobs defined in the Resolution:

• Develop pan-European guidelines on thepromotion of green jobs in the forestsector.

• Exchange of knowledge and experience ineducation and requirements for newskills for with a view to identifying possiblepan-European recommendations to this end.

• Explore possibilities for applying gendermainstreaming to these activities

FOREST EUROPE Work ProgrammeAction 4.3.1. New skills and Green jobs

Thematical focus:

• Promotion of greenjobs

• Education, training, new skills

• Health and Safety

• Gender issues

• Migrant workers

• Long-term unemployed

• Other social issues

FE Expert Group on greenjobs, education

and training systems

Joint FOREST EUROPE, UNECE, FAO workshop

„Promoting green jobs in forest sector“

Preparation of pan-European Guidelines for

promotion of green jobs in the forest sector

• The management and use of forestecosystems respecting the principles ofSustainable Forest Management

• Environmentally friendly productionprocesses based on goods and servicesfrom sustainably managed forests.’

Green jobs in the forest sector are, according to FOREST EUROPE, decent jobs which are related to:

Number of employees in theforest sector is decreasing

Forest sector workforce is ageing

Forest sector has a badimage • low wages

• poor working conditions

• lack of social recognition incomparison to other sectors

• weak social security system

• working in rural areas

Social equity and gender equality

• Social inclusion and genderequality should be promotedalong the whole forest valuechain

• Women are usually under-represented in managementand decision-making

• On the other hand, there is a lack of qualifiedworkforce in many European countries and a lot ofjobs are occupied by low qualified workers, oftenmigrant workers in some countries.

• Education and training systems should be adaptedto changing conditions, technologies and the newskills required in the forest sector.

Training and education are essentialto make forestry competetive and profitable

• Over the last 25 years, the number of highly qualified employeeshas increased in Europe – their knowledge need to be permanentlyupdated.

New cross-sectoral skills for generating and promoting green jobs are required, for example:

• environmental services, land management, landscape architecture;

• bio-economy and circular economy (e.g. wooden houses, new products);

• exploring multiple use of forests and especially non-wood forest products;

• forest pedagogy, forest related environmental education;

• using benefits of forests for human health and eco-therapy;

• communication and conflict management skills.

Diversification towards other sectors brings opportunities to create new jobs

Processing of various non-wood goods and using positiveimpacts of forests on human health, well-being and as asetting for recreation and recovery have a great potential togenerate new green jobs and entrepreneurship based onecotourism, forest related education and healing therapyprogrammes in forest areas and increasing quality of life.

Diversification of forest sector in forest based bio-economy and circular economy

To promote a rapid developmentof the bioeconomy, policyinstruments should be directedat increasing the building ofwooden houses.

Long-term development of thebioeconomy will need new productsdeveloped for new markets, asubstitution of fossil-basedproducts.

Policies and policy tools

Cross-sectoral coordination

Communication

Research, innovation,Training and education

Possible measures to strengthen social aspects and green jobs identified by the EG

Purpose

Share lessons learned and stimulatediscussions among relevant partnerswithin and outside the forest sectoron the promotion of green jobsand the development of new skillsfor the European forest sector

Joint FOREST EUROPE, UNECE, FAO Workshop: Promoting Green Jobs in the Forest SectorJune 27-28 in Bratislava, Slovakia

Contribuing to implementation of:

• Madrid Ministerial Resiolution 1: Forest Sector in the Centre of GreenEconomy

• Rovaniemi Action Plan for the Forest Sector in Green Economy (pillar C –Decent green jobs)

Review and discuss at policy level the main threats to sustainability of theworkforce (including gender aspects), and possible countermeasures.

To share lessons learned and stimulate discussion and exchange knowledge in:

i. The promotion and development of green jobs in the forest sector;

ii. Education and development of new skills;

iii.Promoting cross-sectoral approaches to this end.

To formulate recommendations for the promotion of green jobs in the forestsector including new skills development;

Explore the potential of the concept of green jobs for communicating theforestry issues:

- contribution of the sector to relevant international commitments

- raising awareness on the diversification of employment opportunities

Joint FOREST EUROPE, UNECE, FAO Workshop: Promoting Green Jobs in the

Forest Sector - Objectives

Forest and Green Jobs Side Event - 12th Session of United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF12) - 4 May, New York

www.unece.org/forests http://foresteurope.org

Thank you!

Ludmila MarusakovaHead of the Liaison Unit BratislavaFOREST EUROPEludmila.marusakova@foresteurope.orgTel: +421 45 5314 209www.foresteurope.org