Innovation needed to maximize contributions of forests to sustainable development - Statement by ITTO Executive Director Sheam Satkuru on 2024 International Day of

The forest sector is evolving quickly, with new technological advances, institutional arrangements and policies supporting improved forest management, the expansion of forest landscape restoration, and the sustainable use of a vast and growing range of forest products. [...] The app (available for mobile devices and via a website) has been integrated into the Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s Forest and Land Fire Management Information System and is being used by patrol 1 teams in Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi and Sumatera. [...] The app, known as CUBIFOR,1 is simple to use because it requires only a photograph of the stack of logs (or other wood product), either on the truck or in the mill yard or other location, plus the average width and length of the stack, to estimate volume. [...] CUBIFOR has strengthened the capacity of forest companies in Guatemala to control their inventories, improved the efficiency of activities requiring the quantification of timber volumes, and generally advanced sustainable forest management in the country. [...] The role of international cooperation under the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) and organizations like ITTO, who is a member of the CPF, is to support them in their efforts and to spread the best innovations for the benefit of communities worldwide.