FOREST SECTOR : SGD PROTOCOL

On 25 September 2015, at the 2015 World Summit on Sustainable Development at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the 17 “Sustainable Development Goals” were adopted accordingly by the United Nations General Assembly. This resolution is considered to be the most ambitious agenda “against poverty and for the planet” ever decided upon.

 

The SDGs are the outcome of a global political process, and the international development after 2015, which brought an intensified opposition against multi-national agreements. However, the SDGs are the best basis we have for policies to work for a sustainable future. It is thus in the hands of the UN member states and all societal, private, and corporate actors to focus, in addition to the 169 SDG targets, on pressures and impacts in their sustainability policies and strategies. For doing so, actors need support to identify the mechanisms leading to unsustainability and principles describing how a certain system can be more sustainable.The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) describes these mechanisms, these sustainability principles, andstrategies to implement them, and is concrete enough to support decision-makers, helping them choose the most sustainable activities and formulate relevant questions. The FSSD-sustainability principles can improve our understanding of sustainability and the roots of unsustainability. If these principles are considered, the outcome is a sustainable system that leads to improved sustainability performance. The FSSD sustainability principles state that in a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing

 

1. the concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth’s crust (e.g., fossil carbon, metals);

 

2. the concentrations of substances produced by society (e.g., nitrogen compounds, endocrine disrupters);

 

3. the degradation by physical means (e.g., large-scale clear-cutting of forests, over-fishing); and, in such a society,

 

4. people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs (e.g., decreasing trust through abuse of political and economic power). This fourth principle has been further developed to argue that, in a sustainable society, people are not subject to structural obstacles to health (e.g., dangerous working conditions, insufficient rest times), influence (e.g., by suppression of free speech, neglect of opinions), competence (e.g., by obstacles for education, insufficient development options), impartiality (e.g., by discrimination, unfair treatment), and meaning (e.g., by suppression of cultural expression).

 

These FSSD-principles can be used by all actors who want to implement the SDGs in their area of responsibility, as these principles allow to address sustainability pressures and impacts missing in the SDGs.

 

Two essential characteristics must not be forgotten within the discussion about sustainable development:

 

First, all human systems (e.g., societies, communities, economies, and markets) are part of the biosphere. The embedded nature of these systems in the natural environment is crucial and calls upon humans to respect the earth’s ecological carrying capacity. The fundamental laws of thermodynamics show that all processes are irreversible and dependent on energy, which is provided by renewable or fossil energy sources available in nature. The embedded nature of this system can be called “physicity”, a term that reveals the physical dependence of human beings and human systems on these energy sources.

 

Second, sustainability is a system property and not attributable to the characteristics of a single object alone; instead, it is dependent on both the characteristics of this single object and its relations to other objects and systems.

 

The Sustainable Development Goals present business with the opportunity to demonstrate leadership, apply its knowledge and creativity and provide innovative solutions that ensure a sustainable, resilient and inclusive future for all. Industry peers and value chain partners can leverage the universal framework of the the Sustainable Development Goals to inform their actions, identify new forms of collaboration, unlock investment opportunities and accelerate the transition to 2030. Mt. Everest Forest Botanicals Alliance is the grassroots based national platform for the forest sector value chain to build and share business solutions to lead sustainable development in the forest products sector in Nepal. Its mission is to advance the bio-economy and a thriving forest sector that sustains healthy productive forests and people’s well-being.

A broad array of forest products from paper, packaging and personal care to innovative bio-materials for the construction, pharmaceutical, wellness, lifestyle and textile sectors provides solutions for everyday needs. These products and the forests they come from capture and store carbon. This unique ability positions the forest sector at the center of the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon and circular future that is rooted in renewable, natural resources.

The Protocol articulates a joint vision with respect to the most impactful contributions the forest sector can make through process, product and partnership innovation and provides attainable pathways to help realize and achieve the ambitions that are set out within the SDGs.

 

The Protocol describes the sector’s current level of alignment with the SDGs and identifies key impact opportunities for the most material SDGs and targets, while recognizing the interconnections between them. It outlines tangible actions that the forest sector can take globally and regionally to catalyze lasting impact in the run up to 2030 and beyond.

 

With this Protocol, the members of the Alliance commit to implementing the actions described herein that are most relevant to their business and to monitor and report on progress in accordance with available reporting guidelines and standards. With a view to further evolve this work and to encourage concerted action, the group will seek out innovative forms of collaboration and partnerships.

This Protocol is for forest sector enterprises to help guide, inform and influence decision-making and actions within their business. It also seeks to inspire and foster collaboration throughout the value chain and stimulate cross sectoral cooperation to amplify SDG impact. In particular, it aims to provide a clear and transparent narrative to customers and consumers of forest products and wider stakeholder groups (such as NGOs, industry associations and governments) on the sector’s most significant contributions to attaining the SDGs.

In this Protocol, the Alliance has followed the three-step framework described in the WBCSD SDG Sector Protocol Guidelines. In doing so, the participating Alliance enterprises have come together to establish a common understanding and position around several key factors, including:

 

• the sector’s current level of alignment with the SDGs throughout the value chain;

 

• the sector’s most significant opportunities for impact; and,

 

• key actions to deliver on the impact opportunities and achieve the SDGs.

While the forest sector interacts with all 17 SDGs and recognizes the many interconnections and potential trade-offs among the Goals, for the purpose of this Protocol SDGs 6, 7, 8, 12, 13 and 15 were identified as core Goals where the sector and its value chain have the most potential to influence, create long-term value and drive sector transformation.

 

SDGs 1, 4, 5, 9 and 11 were identified as supportive Goals where the sector can also make a meaningful contribution by driving inclusive and sustainable economic growth through innovation, transparency and operational integrity. Positive and negative interactions of the forest sector with all SDGs are described in Chapter 1.

The Protocol outlines eight impact opportunities with corresponding impact pathways to achieve them. These pathways include specific actions, key enablers and partners to engage with and are mapped against the SDG targets to which the actions most directly contribute. The impact pathways provide a comprehensive overview of actions that the forest sector can take to maximize its contribution to realizing the SDGs.