Mondi and IUFRO partner on solutions to climate change-related forest threats

14 Jul 2021 --- Consumer packaging giant Mondi has struck a three-year partnership with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) to identify science-based solutions to climate-related threats to forests and forest-based industries. 

Their joint efforts aim to establish a science-business platform that addresses climate change challenges. Crucially, drought, extreme weather events and outbreaks of forest pests and diseases are causing severe damage to forests worldwide. 

“Climate change requires a broad discussion among policymakers and stakeholders on how future forest landscapes could meet both the supply needs of the industry and the provision of multiple ecosystem services provided by forests,” Mondi emphasizes.

“This broad discussion must be supported by the best available scientific knowledge to build resilient forests.”

Targeting collaborative change
Aligning with Innova Market Insights’ “Fiber-based Frenzy” trend, approximately 80 percent of Mondi’s business is fiber-based, with various packaging solutions ranging from ice cream wrappers to corrugated boxes for chilled food transport and paper bags for the chemical, food and cement industries.

“Our partnership with IUFRO will allow us to actively collaborate with the scientific community to gain broad access to research and convert this into practical applications and improved operations,” says Dirk Längin, group head of Mondi's fiber sourcing division and IUFRO-Mondi partnership co-chair.

“This gained know-how will also enable us to share our insight with other sectors and industries to mobilize change collaboratively.”

Click to EnlargeThe IUFRO is a worldwide organization devoted to forest research and related sciences.Carbon sequestration
The partnership’s primary focus will include think tank meetings to discuss climate change data and identify options for response measures to mitigate risks.

These will also involve stakeholder dialogues from civil society, the public and private sectors, as well as workshops and regular communications to “facilitate best practice sharing.” 

Forestry protection is covered in the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 15, which aims to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and biodiversity loss.”

The UN affirms forests mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration, contributing to the balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide and humidity in the air and protecting watersheds, which supply 75 percent of freshwater worldwide.

Meanwhile, the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights the major weaknesses in the policies, methods and mechanisms adopted to support trees, forests and forest lands.

Combating climate change is one of three pillars in Mondi's ten-year sustainability action plan, coined MAP2030. The company has set aside a quarter of its forestry landholdings for conservation and biodiversity protection. 

By Anni Schleicher

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