Today is International Day of Forests.
Each year on 21st March, this day invites us to pause and reflect on the vital role forests play in our world. In 2026, the theme is Forests and Economies, and it's a pairing that has been sitting with me for some time.
Because forests are not simply landscapes of beauty. They are living systems. They support livelihoods, sustain biodiversity, regulate climate, protect soil and water, and provide long-term stability. They are, in the deepest sense, economic infrastructure.
And yet forests do not operate through urgency, competition, or short-term gain. They operate through interdependence, patience, and balance.
Perhaps there is something here for business.
Organisations, like forests, are ecosystems. They depend on relationships, unseen networks, and shared resources. They thrive when diversity is valued. They weaken when parts are optimised at the expense of the whole.
I've been reflecting on seven lessons the forest offers us, and sharing them today in a short guide: reflections and poems inspired by the forest, offered not as prescriptions or models, but simply as invitations to look again.
The first asks whether we are seeing the whole forest, or just the trees. In business, it is easy to focus on the visible: targets, performance metrics, individual roles, and immediate problems. Yet a forest does not thrive because of one strong tree. It thrives because of the relationships between them, the nutrients shared underground, the balance maintained across the whole ecosystem.
The second reflection is about the power of the collective. No single tree creates the canopy. It is formed together. Some trees grow tall and fast. Others stabilise the soil. Some regenerate after fire. Some create shade for others to grow. Resilient organisations are built on that same interdependence; on alignment, trust, and shared direction.
Then there are the invisible roots. The most important work in a forest happens underground, unseen. In organisations, those roots look like culture, relationships, values, psychological safety. Rarely captured on a spreadsheet, yet they determine whether growth can be sustained. Forests invest in depth before height.
Forests also know when to shed what no longer serves. Dead branches fall. Weak growth is redirected. Light reaches new shoots. Pruning is not loss, it is intelligent redirection. In business, this might mean letting go of outdated processes, retiring legacy thinking, or ending projects that drain more than they deliver.
And then there is rewilding. Forests are diverse, layered, slightly unpredictable, and that unpredictability is their strength. Monocultures collapse under pressure. Diversity absorbs shock. Over-engineering in organisations can have a similar effect: too many rules, too much reporting, too little experimentation. Wildness, within structure, creates adaptability.
The forest also teaches us to move without perfect visibility. Forests do not wait for certainty. They grow towards light. They adapt to conditions. They respond to what is available now. Waiting for perfect data or total clarity can stall momentum. Sometimes the wisest thing is to take the next step with the clarity already in hand.
And finally, forests think in generations. They capture carbon, regulate ecosystems, protect soil for future growth. They are infrastructure, not for this quarter, but for centuries. True value takes time. Click the download button below for the full guide.
I wrote these poems to sit alongside those reflections - a way of feeling into the forest rather than only thinking about it.
When I feel the wood for the trees
I get a sense of its vastness
Its collective wholeness
and also a sense of the world in which it sits
And that, perhaps, is what this day most invites. Not just to think about forests in the abstract, but to feel what they are pointing towards. To let them offer perspective. Because perspective changes decisions.
Nature offers more than inspiration. It offers a mirror.
More about International Day of Forests here - https://forests.desa.un.org/events/international-day-forests-2026
