These conference reports are written by the beneficiaries of our travel fund.
Click here to read more about the fund and apply yourself
The IUFRO World Congress is held once every 5 years and has a critical role as the largest global gathering of forest scientists. In 2024 a record 4,271 registrants from 102 countries attended the congress. The theme was ‘Forests and Society Towards 2050’ and His Majesty the King of Sweden was among the distinguished speakers in the opening ceremony. Staff and students from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) Uppsala did an exemplary job in organising and running this complex interdisciplinary congress.
In this time of rapid change and the effects of climate change being felt, forests and forest science have a critical role in safeguarding the planet and the communities that live on it. There was emphasis on the importance of local communities, indigenous knowledge and empowerment of women in forest restoration and care, particularly in the global south where millions of people depend on the forests for food, medicine, shelter and survival.
Andrew Liebhold (US forest service) gave a superb plenary talk on the threats that pests and pathogens pose to forests worldwide. Climate change is shifting the range of some pests/pathogens and the intensity of the problems they cause. However, globalisation and the movement of pests and pathogens by trade and travel are also responsible for many forest invasions. To counter this, Andrew suggested increased biosecurity worldwide, with better border security along with improved surveillance and eradication of new pests and pathogens. Another issue related to globalism is ‘enemy release’ when non-native trees are used in plantation forestry and can themselves become invasive, such as wilding pines in some Southern hemisphere countries. Andrew’s advice to young forest scientists was to think carefully about possible unintended consequences before embarking on new projects.
In another session, Treena Burgess (Australia) and Alberto Santini (Italy) gave insightful and sobering talks on the effects of global warming on the emergence of native forest pathogens. Treena talked about how human activities such as climate change, droughts, wildfires, land clearing/fragmentation, have disrupted co-evolved plant-pathogen relationships and led to the emergence of epidemics. Alberto gave examples of how native endophytic fungi can become pathogenic when trees are under severe drought stress. Both speakers predicted increases in epidemics and gave suggestions for evaluating, monitoring and managing them.
SLU scientists achieved a truly impressive feat by organising 15 field excursions for 3,300 participants. Approximately 70% of the land area in Sweden is forested, dominated by Norway Spruce & Scots pine with the remainer birch and other deciduous trees, including Ash and Elm, so it was a treat to listen to the expertise of forest scientists in this forest nation. The forest pathology excursion allowed us to learn about trials on Continuous Cover Forestry, to see the damage caused by of pests and pathogens in these forests and to discuss forest regeneration.
On the final day, Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) gave a sobering plenary talk on climate change but presented results of a study that suggested how building with wood instead of conventional cement, iron and steel could make significant steps towards climate restoration (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32244-w). Another insightful session was the ‘Power of youth in scaling multisectorial collaboration’ in which a panel of highly motivated young scientists, who are members of the International Forest Students Association (IFSA), called for immediate action and for young people to be fully and meaningfully engaged in policy making at the highest levels. I sincerely hope they achieve these goals.
I thank the BSPP for providing funding that assisted me to attend this conference.
Rosie Bradshaw (Emeritus Professor)
