World Forestry Congress


The World Forestry Congress is the largest and most significant gathering of the world's forestry sector and it has been held every six years since 1926 under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, organized by the government of the host country. It is a forum for the sharing of knowledge and experience regarding the conservation, management and use of the world's forests, and covers such issues as international dialogue, socio-economic and institutional aspects, and forest policies.
The aim of the WFC is to contribute to orient/shape international action in silvicultural aspects and stimulate global competency and reflection that can inform the development of the global forestry sector. The WFC may also be providing guidance to national and international forestry organizations as to the most appropriate and effective means to coordinate international actions concerning technical and policy. Finally, the Congress can contribute to identify action lines, define guidelines to stimulate the development of national policies, propose incentives to orient the public and private sector, promote international cooperation in forestry matters, whilst contributing to social progress and the conservation of natural resources at global, regional and national levels.

General relevance and objectives

The World Forestry Congresses are an international effort aimed at influencing and stimulating reflection and analysis of the different factors, conditions, techniques, methodologies as well as professional or personal positions, thinking and ideas concerning global silviculture science. As such, each WFC has contributed to create awareness, to review and/or to formulate new approaches to technical, scientific or policy actions within the forestry sector.
The value and utility of the WFC rests also in the opportunity it offers to the world foresters and sectoral decisions-makers to analyse and expose their technical convictions and experiences, to discuss and exchange ideas and thinking, and to broaden their perspectives by sharing their common as well as diverse problems. This is particularly true today, as forestry development is becoming more and more a topic with international linkages and implications.
The growth in exchanges of knowledge and people in the forestry sector benefits all countries, and especially those with more need for forestry development. The diffusion of the scientific and technical advances as well as the human contacts promoted by the Congress, contribute to a better global balance in this sector and allow dissemination of more accurate information about forestry.
The WFC does not play the role of assessing the political, economic and social objectives of the participant countries. However, in its capacity as extraordinary assembly with broad representation from many countries and forestry groups, it contributes continuously to drawing public attention to forest related issues, to the need to raise livelihoods, and to the importance of the multiple benefits provided by forests.
Future WFCs will continue to promote international exchange, both as a result of new research and collaborations and of better comprehension of forest ecosystems and techniques for the sustainable development of these resources in the 21st century.

List of World Forestry Congresses

1st and 2nd World Forestry Congresses: 1926 and 1936

  • The 1st World Forestry Congress was held in Rome in 1926.
  • The 2nd World Forestry Congress was convened at Budapest in 1936. These two conferences have been milestones in the development of international co-operation in forestry. The impetus which they gave has become evident in the ever-growing common effort for a solution of the many problems affecting forestry and forest products. The Third Congress was planned for 1940 with the Government of Finland as host. The war, however, intervened and the Congress had to be postponed.

    3rd World Forestry Congress: Helsinki, Finland, 10–20 July 1949

At the end of World War II, the Government of Finland was again prepared to extend its hospitality to a gathering of the world's foresters. The 1947 session of FAO's annual Conference, held at Geneva, passed a resolution calling for a World Forestry Congress in 1949. FAO's Annual Conference gladly accepted Finland's proposal of Helsinki resuming its role as the site of the Third World Forestry Congress. Professor E. Saari was appointed Chairman of the Organizing Committee and Mr Leppo, Secretary-General.

"When this third Congress reviews the progress made since 1936, it will be seen how greatly ideas and practice in various countries have benefited from international exchanges of view and experience."

The Congress achieved an important resolution, recommended the preparation of a forestry dictionary in the major languages of the world. Such a dictionary should not only list translations of terms; it should also give precise definitions of the terms most commonly used in forestry and of the more important phrases of the forester's vocabulary.
The main themes of the Third Congress were:
The objective of the Congress was to determine the role and place of forested areas in the general land economy and economic development of a country, in the light of progress made to date in knowledge of forest resources, in silviculture and management, in logging and utilization.
The main themes for discussion were:
  1. Present situation of forest protection and forest management in the world
  2. Protective functions of the forest
  3. Forest products utilization
  4. Tropical forestry
An excerpt from FAO's Director-General Message to the Fourth World Forestry Congress:

What do I expect from the Fourth World Forestry Congress? Not directives which only Governments can give, but instructive information and advice on which those directives can be based and, following which, I can see that our abilities for service can be made most effective.
If we can recognize the inviting horizons ahead and be advised how we can move towards them in helpful association with each other, I am convinced we can realize our ambitions. In so doing we can experience the gratification of achievement which, after all, is perhaps one of the highest forms of compensation to be derived from any endeavor.

5th World Forestry Congress: Seattle, United States, 1960

The central theme of the Congress was the "Multiple Use of Forest and Associated Lands." Multiple use means the management of the forest in a manner that, while conserving the basic land resource, will yield a high level of production in the five major uses – wood, water, forage, recreation, and wildlife – for the long-run benefit of the largest possible number of people.
The main themes discussed in the Congress were:
  1. Forest Protection
  2. Education
  3. Forest and Range Watersheds
  4. Logging and Forest Operations
  5. Genetics and Tree Improvement
  6. Forest Economics and Policy
  7. Forest Products
  8. Forest Recreations and Wildlife
  9. Tropical Forestry
The Congress concluded that the multiple-use concept presented new challenges and new opportunities to foresters everywhere, with great prospects for additional services to the welfare of mankind. It was not, however, a panacea which could solve all forest management problems. Often one use must be dominant and other proposed uses must not then be detrimental to the major one. Moreover, there can be disadvantages to multiple use when it is inefficiently applied. But multiple use must be recognized as an important goal of forest policies.
The Congress was attended by 1,970 participants representing 65 countries.

6th World Forestry Congress: Madrid, Spain, June 1966

The main theme of the Congress was "The role of forestry in the changing world economy", based on a study conducted for FAO by Wood: "World trends and prospects."
In November 1965, representatives from 114 Member States met at FAO's headquarters in Rome, under the chairmanship of Maurice Sauvé, Minister of Forestry, Canada, for the thirteenth session of the Conference, and celebrated the Twentieth Anniversary of the founding of FAO.
Reviewing the world forestry situation, the Conference set down certain considerations which must determine the scale and pattern of FAO's future activities. Among these was the following:
The forestry administrator today faces tasks considerably more complex than those faced by his predecessors. This is particularly true in developing countries. The number of institutions for higher forestry education responding to these changing needs is as yet insufficient. FAO is uniquely placed to interpret these changing needs, through its intimate contacts with national forest administrations, its working relations with forest industries, its awareness of the requirements of developing countries, and its contacts with, and responsibility for, many forestry educational institutions. On FAO therefore, lies the responsibility for promoting discussion and initiating action, by assisting forestry schools to transform their graduate and postgraduate training.

The main themes discussed in the Congress were:
  1. World trends in wood resources and requirements
  2. Planning the use of forest potentials
  3. Institutional framework for forestry development
  4. Financing forestry and forest industries development
The Congress urged governments receiving aid from outside sources to create by their own efforts and endeavours such conditions as would enable them best to profit from the technical and material assistance afforded to them. The Congress hoped these kinds of assistance could then be further expanded.
The Congress was attended by 2,700 participants representing 93 countries.