This paper explores the need for the re-imagination of forests with respect to their contribution to rural development. This process requires a departure from production-centred thinking to a more holistic vision that recognises the full range of ecosystem services that forests provide. It also requires more effective measurement of the value of forests and the reflection of those values in policy instruments. Realising that vision thus requires a re-imagination of institutions and policies to reward forest owners more effectively for the provision of crucial ecosystem services (including carbon), as well as the stimulation of regional innovation systems which can capture and add value to the linkages between forestry and rural development. In conclusion, in the looming struggle to address global climate change, there is scope for forests to make a much greater contribution to sustainable energy and sustainable products and services. The multiple current difficulties facing the forest sector are greatest in dryland areas where under-management of the forest resource, forest fires and disease are pressing issues. In more temperate maritime climate zones, the transition to new multifunctional roles is generally less challenging, but nonetheless strongly differentiated between production-dominated and amenity-dominated forest management regimes. Addressing climate change and accommodating new values offers enormous scope for repositioning forestry and giving it a new salience in a low carbon world.
