The more we know about our rapidly changing environment, climate, and demographics, the more we learn about how critical forests are for our resilience, overall wellbeing, livelihoods, and economies. Unfortunately, in a world of budgetary constraints and competing interests, governments face increasingly complex decisions when it comes to supporting different sector priorities.

The solution is to move away from the traditional approach of sectors operating in isolation or in competition with one another, and more towards an integrated win-win approach. But how? There is, in fact, increasing evidence that thinking across sectors makes the most convincing business case for forests and for sustainable economic growth, job creation, and poverty alleviation, all at the same time. At the World Bank’s Program on Forests (PROFOR), this cross-sectoral thinking is called “forest smart.” — blog.wb.org/blogs