The demand for the environmental services provided by forests is growing both domestically and worldwide, as economies expand and as ecosystems come under increasing pressure. While the demand for the services provided by forests is mounts, meeting these often-competing demands in a sustainable way has become increasingly difficult.

           Climate change and the associated changing hydrological regimes and increasing frequency of natural disaster, add a new element of economic risk to land-use changes. However, the unsustainable use of forest resources and conversion of forests continues - the result of conflicting policy and the attractive, and more immediate economic gains presented by alternative land uses such as cash crop production.

           The uncounted costs of unsustainable use of forest resources represent forgone economic opportunities, including those presented by rapidly-developing markets in forest environmental services, non-wood forest products, as well as new financial flows through the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biodiversity. Protecting and building the natural capital represented by sustainably managed forests is therefore a key element of environmentally sustainable economic growth and action to mitigate the risks of climate change. It is also an important step to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

           However, it is not clear how environmentally and socially sustainable use of forest resources can be justified on economic and political grounds. Key policy and decision-makers in government require clear information regarding the growing economic values of forest environmental services, and the range of investment options, economic instruments, institutional innovations and partnerships that can maximize investment returns for all stakeholders.

          Without such information, existing policy frameworks, allocation of resources and decision-making will continue to entrench unsustainable patterns of land use and the lost opportunities and costs of unsustainable patterns of land use will continue to mount across Asia and the Pacific. Regional dialogue on these issues has largely been confined to those already working in the environmental sector. This workshop is intended to give those with the economic policy and decision-making power opportunities to learn more about how to use a wide range of economic instruments to develop more environmentally sustainable economic growth patterns.