The Business of Sustainable Forestry Case Study - Emerging Technologies: Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Forestry

As experience grows with sustainable forest management (SFM) practices throughout the world, one single factor continues to emerge as noncontrovertible: SFM practices do appear to cost more to implement in the forest. It is this factor that continues to drive the debate over whether SFM practices are economically-feasible for the forest products industry. If SFM proponents fail to recognize the importance of helping industry to increase the higher value of wood produced with equal or less resource use, then incentive-based efforts to infuse SFM practices and certified wood product development into accepted industry standards will not succeed. Finding ways to foster the adoption of emerging technologies that enable the forest industry to accomplish better bottom-line results could prove to be of significant benefit to fast-tracking the implementation of SFM practices worldwide. Identifying these emerging technologies, however, and providing a pathway for easier entry into the market is no simple task.This Emerging Technologies note highlights some of the most promising technologies, techniques, and strategies that may foster the implementation of SFM practices by offering improved environmental and bottom-line results to the forest products industry.