VANCOUVER-- China is emerging as a global leader in forest policy at a time when Canada and other western nations are losing control of their forests, the former head of forestry at the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization said Tuesday.

Hosny El Lakany said in an interview at the International Symposium on Forestry Education, now underway at the University of B.C., that funding cuts and declining enrolment in forestry faculties are taking place in western countries at a time when greater control over the forests is being turned over to corporations

"With all the global interest in forests to mitigate the effects of climate change, who is going to do it?"El Lakany said in the interview. "With all due respect to the accountants, who is going to manage the forests?"

El Lakany, a speaker at the three-day symposium, said in the interview that China appears to be in the lead in recognizing the broader social definition of forestry. He said in the interview that Chinese students are willing to pay steep fees to enroll at leading institutions like UBC's department of forestry, while in the West, the public perception of foresters is that they only cut down trees. The reality, he said, is that forestry is becoming increasingly involved in the social issues of our day and there is a greater need for foresters who have a wide range of skills, from negotiating on behalf of countries at climate change summits to an understanding of ecology and even international law.

The symposium is addressing the changing face of forestry education in a world where social issues have trumped timber harvesting as the key role of forests.

Tat Smith, dean of forestry at the University of Toronto, told the conference that forestry needs to be seen as essential in solving global issues from habitat loss, to climate change and bioenergy development.

He noted that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in its 2007 report that forests will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit in battling climate change. Yet undergraduate enrolment in forestry departments at five leading Canadian universities has dropped from 1,100 undergraduates in 2000 to 400 in 2008. Urbanization is a factor in declining interest in the story of forestry, he said.

"Do people living in downtown Vancouver or downtown Toronto really realize how important forestry is to their welfare?"

In contrast to Canada, enrolment in forestry education is on the rise in China. At one Chinese institution alone, Beijing Forestry University, undergraduate enrolment has climbed from 5,400 to 13,000 over the same period of time, said university president Yin Weilun.

China has the largest delegation at the UBC symposium, ahead of both Canada and the United States. Yin said China wants to play a larger international role in developing forest policies.

"Forest ecology has no borders, therefore it is important to have international forestry education,"he said.

He said the Chinese government has set a national goal of creating an ecological civilization, which it sees as the next step up from our current industrial civilization. Forestry plays a key role in achieving an ecological civilization, he said. Support from government has helped promote interest in forestry, despite perceptions arising from increased urbanization, Yin said

However, the Chinese educational system has its inadequacies, Yin said, specifically, its system of single-discipline universities. He said Canada's multi-discipline universities offer a better climate for broader forestry education.

The UBC event is the second and final of two symposiums on forest education. The first was held in Beijing in December 2008.