The WWD 2023 theme is Wood in Cultural Heritage.
"Wood in Cultural Heritage" is a continuation of the 2022 theme "Trees for Good: Challenges, Opportunities, Sustainability" to emphasize the role of wood in human history, lifestyle and environment.
Wood has been widely used for various structural and non-structural purposes and their distinct uses has even characterized regions, societies and ethnicities around the world from historical, recent and contemporary scenarios. Wood has been mainly used in buildings and other structures, as well as for decorative, artefact, ritual and spiritual reasons upon which an inherent emotional link between humanity and wood of various forms, products and materials has developed over thousands of years which is currently recognized as “wooden cultural heritage”.
Historical wooden cultural heritage provides insights on the technological and sociological progress of that era of use, reflecting past human history, science, arts and culture. Besides historical (and ancient) wood, it should also be appreciated that contemporary and new generation wooden products will naturally involve embedded human attachment and hence a sense of cultural heritage for these recent and newer wooden products.
With the continuation of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 WWD will once again be virtual with a vast array of programs as well as many regional events in different parts of the world.