Sumitomo Forestry took part as the only Japanese company in formulating the Forest Sector Nature-Positive Roadmap released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Source: Timberbiz
WBCSD, a global, CEO-led community working toward attaining sustainable development, was founded by the world’s business leaders in 1995, following the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992.
WBCSD has a membership comprising approximately 220 of the world’s leading sustainable businesses and engages in a wide variety of actions as a global organization, such as formulating guidelines and proposing policies to promote the shift toward a sustainable society. WBCSD works on both national and regional levels and entered into partnership with Keidanren in Japan in 2003.
The roadmap was developed by the Forest Solutions Group (FSG), an internal initiative of the WBCSD comprised of 15 global companies in the forest sector. Sumitomo Forestry has been a member of the FSG since January 2019 and participated in the development of the Forest Sector SDG Roadmap (July 2019) to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the Forest Sector Net Zero Roadmap (November 2021) for a low carbon economy.
The goal of the latest roadmap is to attain zero net loss of nature from 2020 and net positive by 2030. To achieve this goal, the roadmap urges each business in the forest sector to not only maintain and expand sustainable working forests but also build a circular business model by maximizing the recovery and recycling of materials and products. Case examples featured in the roadmap include Sumitomo Forestry’s use of water-level management technology in tropical peatlands in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The reforestation project of the Company is pesticide, chemical fertilizer free operation that takes into consideration the surrounding river basin.
FSG began formulating the roadmap in January 2022 in recognition of the fact that the forest sector, which benefits from forests, is both responsible for and able to bear substantial contribution to forest conservation and restoration amid the on-going ecosystem deterioration resulting from climate change, agricultural land development, and other factors.
FSG consulted with approximately 30 stakeholders, including international organizations and private companies, during the formulation process to integrate third parties’ opinions into the roadmap with the aim of providing guidance for the forest sector toward achieving nature positive. Following the formulation of the roadmap (phase one), FSG will start considering how to develop and implement further effective measures, such as those with quantitative targets.
