Towards Climate-Resilient and Biodiverse Productive Forests – A New Vision for Forestry

Forests play a vital role in climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, yet traditional management approaches often lack long-term resilience. This side event presents a science-based framework for climate- and biodiversity-smart forest management, developed by IKEA in collaboration with the European Forest Institute and Preferred by Nature. The initiative integrates scientific evidence, traditional knowledge, and innovative silviculture - including closer-to-nature practices - to enhance forest resilience, biodiversity, and carbon storage, while ensuring sustainable wood production at the lowest possible cost. Initial implementation will focus on 16,000 hectares of IKEA-owned forests in Latvia.

The session will explore how this approach complements FSC certification and offers insights for the future development of sustainability standards - positioning FSC at the forefront of climate-resilient, biodiverse forest management.