Policy Brief - Forests as Pillars of Social and Economic Resilience

This publication is based on the report “Forests as Pillars of Social and Economic Resilience” published as IUFRO World Series Vol. 45 (2025). The Global Forest Expert Panel (GFEP) on Forests for Social and Economic Resilience comprehensively assessed the available scientific information on the multi-dimensional relationships between forests and social and economic resilience. This policy brief distills the main key messages of that effort, presenting crucial information based on scientific evidence, which aims to inform holistic, effective, and just policymaking to respond to current challenges.

The following key messages are highlighted:

• Understanding and enhancing the resilience of forest social-ecological systems is key to ensure sustainable benefits.
• Forests provide key benefits for enhancing social and economic resilience, both locally and globally.
• Generally, forest resilience is declining, and the combined impact of climate change and other disturbances poses critical threats to forest social-ecological systems.
• Governance of forest social-ecological systems can enhance resilience with adaptive and transformative approaches, but is currently uneven and sometimes inequitable.
• Forest-focused interventions are unlikely to be sufficient in building resilience independent of other, complementary policy interventions.