Employment:
Forestry

Forestry embraces all the fieldwork required to establish, regenerate, manage and protect forests and to harvest their products. Output (commercial) is equivalent to about 0.4% of world GDP. With 3.5 billion m3 harvested annually, wood is by far the most important forest product. Non-wood forest products like rattan, cork, gums, etc. are very important for subsistence and/or industry in some regions. Production is projected to increase by 2.7% per annum with much higher rates in developing countries than in industrialized ones. While more than 80% of the wood harvested in industrialized countries is used for industry, about 80% of production in developing countries is fuel wood. The value of non-commercial goods and services provided by forests may well exceed that of the commercial output. Forestry is also often a very important element of rural economies, providing complementary employment to agriculture and offering jobs in regions where few other employment opportunities exist.

Statistics on wage employment in forestry are often unavailable or unreliable. Many self-employed and farmers do not get recorded, and most activity is subsistence rather than wage employment. This is particularly true for fuelwood harvesting and transport in developing countries. World wage employment in forestry is approximately 3 million, about 1 million in industrialized countries. Unpaid subsistence work primarily for fuel wood harvesting probably occupies about 14 million full-time equivalents, 90% of that in developing countries. Total forestry employment represents about 1% of total world employment. While wage employment is largely a male domain, with women rarely exceeding 10% of the workforce, subsistence employment is dominated by women in many developing countries. The workforce is mobile and sometimes seasonal. In most industrialized countries the forestry workforce has been shrinking due to rapid mechanization, particularly in wood harvesting. In a number of developing countries the industrial forestry workforce is likely to grow as a result of more intensive forest management and tree plantations. Subsistence employment on the other hand is likely to decline gradually as fuel wood is replaced by other forms of energy.

Training of forest workers has made great strides in Europe in recent decades, but is rudimentary or non-existent in most tropical countries. Adequate training is one of the key elements in breaking the circle of low productivity, low wages, high accident rates and high turnover in the workforce.