INTERGOVERNMENTAL FORUM ON FORESTS TO MEET AT GENEVA, 24 AUGUST - 4 SEPTEMBER
Press Release
ENV/DEV/483
INTERGOVERNMENTAL FORUM ON FORESTS TO MEET AT GENEVA, 24 AUGUST - 4 SEPTEMBER
19980821 Measures to slow deforestation and background talks on possible elements of a legal agreement are on the agenda for the first substantive session of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests to be held at Geneva from 24 August to 4 September.The Forum will pick up the negotiations begun at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, where forests were among the most contentious North-South issues. A United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Forests created in 1995 went a long way toward building international consensus during several rounds of talks that concluded in 1997, when Governments agreed on over 135 proposals for action towards sustainable forest management.
How to put those proposals into action and track progress are top items to be discussed at this session on the new Forum, which was established at the "Earth Summit+5" review of the Rio accords in June 1997. At that review, attended by nearly 70 Heads of State, Governments agreed on the urgent need to move forward in implementing the Panel's proposals, but were unable to reach consensus on the need for a legal convention on forests. Among the matters left pending from the Panel's work, the new Forum was asked to identify possible elements of and work toward consensus on international mechanisms, such as a legally binding instrument.
Preliminary discussions on this question, including a review of the impact of existing legal agreements and international work on forests, will be held at the upcoming Forum session -- technically the body's second meeting, following organizational talks last October. The next session, set for May 1999, will work on identifying the possible elements of international arrangements, such as a forest convention. The final Forum session scheduled for February-March 2000 is mandated to make a recommendation on this issue to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.
Deforestation Continues Despite Progress
Although reports prepared for the Forum session show significant progress since the Earth Summit -- both at the country level, in improving
national forest planning and in increasing international coordination -- statistics still paint a disturbing picture of continued deforestation.
Between 1991 and 1995, the world lost an average of 11.3 million hectares of net forest area annually -- an area roughly the size of Honduras -- according to the Worldwatch Institute, based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Most of this loss took place in tropical forests, which lost 12.6 million hectares a year, offset slightly by planting of forest plantations in other regions. Despite public concern, destruction of rainforests has continued almost unabated since the 1980s, when the average annual loss of tropical forests was 12.8 million hectares. Just a few countries -- Bolivia, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Venezuela and Zaire -- accounted for 50 per cent of the tropical forest loss in 1991-1995.
"We believe that the more [United Nations Panel] Proposals for action are implemented, the better will be the situation of forests", says Ambassador Bagher Asadi of Iran, who will be co-chairing the Forum session along with Ambassador Ilkka Ristimaki of Finland. "This is one of the main issues before the Forum this session, and we trust that progress will be made. The fact that Governments decided to set up the Forum last year shows that the international community is determined to continue this process."
Implementing Proposals for Action
At the top of the Forum's agenda will be how to promote implementation of the Panel's Proposals for Action. A United Nations report prepared for the session concludes that, based on preliminary results, the action proposals are effective guidelines for national policy, although they do not constitute a formal plan. However, the report states, there is a clear need for continuing political support for implementation, as well as increased financial assistance for developing countries, especially those unlikely to attract private investment in their forest sector.
The Governments of six countries -- Finland, Germany, Honduras, Indonesia, Uganda and the United Kingdom -- launched an initiative by which they undertook national case studies on how to put the action proposals into practice, published a "Practitioners' Guide" to the proposals, and organized a major expert meeting in July 1998 to share their findings with other countries and give feedback to the Forum.
Among the key action proposals to be discussed at the Forum are:
-- National forest programmes. Many counties, including Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark and Switzerland, are reviewing their national forest management that takes into account the environmental benefits and services of forest ecosystems, as well as competing economic and social
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demands for forest and land use. At the same time, many countries -- particularly least developed countries with low forest cover, which are of less interest to commercial investors -- have been left with very inadequate international support for forest management, given the steady decline in development assistance.
-- Criteria and indicators. Since the Earth Summit, some 100 countries have participated in international work aimed at defining and measuring sustainable forest management. Efforts continue in the Forum and several other international and regional bodies to harmonize measurements to allow better assessment of global forest resources and analysis of trends.
-- Trade and environment. The Forum will continue talks on how to ensure that trade and environment practices are mutually supportive, including examination of voluntary certification or "eco-labeling" schemes for wood products. There is concern among some developing countries which export wood products that such schemes may act as discriminatory trade barriers, given their limited capacity to meet high environmental standards.
-- International coordination. Among the Panel's action proposals is to improve coordination among international agencies. This is being achieved largely through the work of the Interagency Task Force on Forests, an informal, high-level group set up in 1995 to bring together the eight United Nations agencies and programmes active in forest conservation and sustainable development.
Also, a series of expert and regional meetings aimed at moving forest policy issues forward have been organized by several United Nations and other bodies which have pooled their resources and expertise. Groups actively involved include the Convention on Biodiversity Secretariat, the Center for International Forest Research, FAO, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Secretariat and the World Bank.
In a convergence of international policy, the Forestry Advisers Group, composed on members from several donor countries, and the "G-8 Action Programme on Forests", which was announced at their May 1998 summit, both have placed high priority on supporting national forest programmes and other policies urged by the United Nations Panel.
For more information (before and after the session), contact: Pragati Pascale (tel: 212-963-6870; fax: 212-963-1186; e-mail: pascale@un.org) at the Development and Human Rights Section of the Department of Public Information, New York. During the session, please contact: Preeta Bannerjee (tel. 41-22- 917-2314) at the United Nations Information Service, Geneva.
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Further information about the Forest Forum can be found on the United Nations Home Page at . If you would like to receive press releases by e-mail about United Nations work for sustainable development, please send a request by e-mail to .
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