UNITED NATIONS FORUM ON FORESTS BEGINS DELIBERATIONS

United Nations Forum on Forests

Organizational Session

1^st Meeting (AM)

UNITED NATIONS FORUM ON FORESTS BEGINS DELIBERATIONS

Forum Chairman Calls Scheduled Two-Week Session

Decisive Post-Rio Step Towards Sustainable Forest Management

The United Nations was embarking on a new phase of international commitment to the goal of sustainable forest management, and the newly created Forum on Forests would serve as an example of how to address complex and cross-cultural issues for the benefit of humankind, the Forum was told this morning as its opened its first substantive session.

The Forum on Forests, due to end its session on 22 June, was established on 18 October 2000 by the Economic and Social Council as a subsidiary body with universal membership.  The high-level intergovernmental body is charged with advancing policy development and dialogue on forest management and related issues.  For years, forest programmes have been country-specific; the Forum provides an opportunity to promote global norms in the field, without losing the flexible nature of national plans.  Forests and woodlands cover nearly one-third of the planet, and in the developing world, more than 500 million people in more than

70 developing countries live in and around forests and depend on them for daily subsistence.  In the last decade, many millions of hectares of forests were damaged or destroyed.

Assistant Secretary-General for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Patrizio Civili, addressed the Forum on behalf of the Council’s Under-Secretary-General, Nitin Desai.  He said that the first substantive meeting of the Forum marked the beginning of an important new phase of the Organization’s policy deliberations on those issues.  The deliberations at the Rio Earth Summit had initially sparked the broad concern of the international community on forest issues.  Many different views had emerged on the relationship between policies aimed at protection of the environment and sustainable development.  Much attention had been paid to the importance of sustaining national forests and indeed, the Rio Declaration remained a landmark achievement for forests.

The highly complex nature of resource preservation issues -- including the protection of energy, water, mountains and coastal zones -- made broad cooperation critical to the formulation of international policies on forests, he said.  Any agreed initiatives should consider the crucial role forest management could play in the eradication of poverty and sustainable development for all.  Moreover, cooperative action must be guided by comprehensive multi-sectoral policies.  During this first substantive session, the Forum should stress the importance of participatory consensus-building on international forestry issues as well as the

imperative of coordination.  The Forum should also work to build consensus on the largest possible number of issues and proposals for action, thus formulating a realistic agenda for the next five years.  That agenda should aim to mobilize national as well as international political support on forest issues as well as identify pragmatic, feasible targets and timetables that would promote political commitments.

Chairman Mubarak Hussein Rahmtalla (Sudan) said that the Forum's establishment was among the most concrete legacies of "Agenda 21" (the comprehensive plan for global action in all areas of sustainable development), which was adopted in Rio in 1992.  The new Economic and Social Council body took on particular significance as the world community prepared for the upcoming World Summit, informally known as "Rio + 10", in Johannesburg, South Africa.  The Forum had an opportunity to define its own scope of work, initiate a framework for a plan of action, design new approaches in international cooperation, and expand coordination through the newly formed collaborative partnerships on forests.  The success of the new enterprise would be defined by action on the ground.  Initiating a plan of action was central to the Forum.

M. Hosny El-Lakany, Assistant Director-General, Forestry Department, Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) and Chairman of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), said the session would set the course for intergovernmental forestry deliberations and action.  To that end, the partners had agreed to expand its membership slightly, and three new institutions had been invited to join.  Those were the secretariats of the Convention to Combat Deforestation (CCD), Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Control (UNFCCC).  He was pleased to note that the GEF would join the Collaborative Partnership.

Two major tasks for the near future were to implement the proposals of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) and the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF), and assist countries in their national implementation, in particular through the development of their national forest programmes.  The second major task was to assist the Forum in monitoring, assessing and reporting on progress towards its objectives.

During the session, the Forum hopes to adopt a multi-year programme of work to chart its direction for the next four and a half years.  During informal consultations in February, it was broadly suggested that the Forum take up the three pillars of sustainable forest management –- economic, social and environmental concerns.  The first session will also seek to reach agreement on a framework for developing a plan of action which would be the main vehicle for translating policy into action.  Renewing commitments among all partners in the context of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests would be stressed.  Also important was the Ministerial segment, which provided a unique opportunity to strengthen political commitments and mobilize support for sustainable forestry at national, regional and global levels. 

The Coordinator and Head of the Forum’s Secretariat, Jagmohan Maini, introduced the reports of the session highlighting the importance of the development of a comprehensive programme of work, which was central to the work of the Forum.  The work programme should focus on the implementation of forest initiatives at the country level.  There was also a need to emphasize capacity building, and the importance of sustainable development to human well-being.

In procedural matters today, the Forum adopted its programme of work and agenda for the session.  It also elected the Chairmen of its Working Groups, as follows:  Knut Øistad (Norway) of Working Group I on the multi-year programme of work; and Slamet Hidayat (Indonesia) of Working Group II on the programme of action.

The Forum also granted observer status to the following relevant intergovernmental organizations to participate in its work during this session: Center for International Forestry Research; International Tropical Timber Organization; and Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe.

Background

The first session will focus on several substantive issues, including the identification of a five-year global forest agenda and the development of an action plan to advance the implementation of agreed initiatives on forests.  The Forum's work during the session would also feature the active participation of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) -- a partnership of forest-related international organizations and instruments.  The Forum is also set to decide on its contribution to the upcoming 10-year review of the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit, to be held next September in Johannesburg.

By its resolution 2000/35, the Economic and Social Council established the Forum as a subsidiary body with universal membership.  It will subsequently act as a high-level intergovernmental body with ministerial segments that would provide a forum for policy development and dialogue; promote the implementation of agreed actions towards sustainable forest management; enhance international coordination and cooperation in order to effectively address forest-related issues; and strengthen political commitment to sustainable management and conservation of all types of forests.  The Forum also encourages the participation of civil society and, in that regard would hold multi-stakeholder dialogues at each session, in order to consider the inputs of various forest-related actors.

Last year, the Economic and Social Council invited the executive heads of international organizations and instruments related to forests to form the Collaborative Partnership on Forests to enhance international coordination and cooperation.  Established earlier this year, the Partnership was based on the experience of the high-level, informal Interagency Task Force on Forests (ITFF) during the last six years.  The current members of the CPF includes, among others, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO); United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and the World Bank.  The establishment of the CPF represents the commitment of its member organizations to support the Forum’s work and to enhance cooperation and coordination among its partners.

In order to facilitate is deliberations during the session, the Forum had before it the report of the Secretary-General on the multi-year programme of work (document E/CN.18/2001/5 and Corr.1), containing the basic framework of the programme of work, the contents of which are designed to promote management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests and strengthen long-term political commitment to that end.  It also considers such issues as the schedule of the Ministerial Segments and organization of multi-stakeholder

dialogues at the Forum, and the establishment and schedule of international expert groups to advance forest-related issues for negotiations during Forum sessions.

The Forum will also have before it the report of the Secretary-General on the Plan of Action (document E/CN.18/2001/6 and Corr.1).  The report proposes a two-step approach towards the development of the Forum’s plan of action.  As a first step, the Forum will decide on the programmatic components of the plan, approaches for addressing key issues such as financial provisions; defining targets and timetables; and monitoring, assessment and reporting on the progress. The next step will be the adoption of the plan of action, envisaged for the second substantive session next year.

Also before the Forum was a note by the Secretariat on the Initiation of the work of the United Nations Forum on Forests with the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (document E/CN.18/2001/7) which describes the mandate, role and objectives of the recently established CPF.  It also gives information on the decision-making systems of various CPF members, as they are autonomous organizations with their own governing bodies and mandates.  The note concludes by suggesting some specific tasks that the Forum may wish to invite CPF to undertake in support of its work. It suggests, among other things, that the CPF would be strengthened by a few other international forest-related organizations, institutions and instruments.

It would also consider a letter addressed to the Secretary-General dated

25 May 2001 from the permanent Representatives of Brazil, Denmark and Norway and the Deputy Permanent Representatives of South Africa and the United Kingdom (document E/CN.18/2001/8).  The letter transmitted the report of the International Workshop of Experts on Financing Sustainable Forest Management, which had been held in Oslo, from 22 to 25 January 2001.  That Workshop had been convened in support of the proposals for action of the Panel on Forests and the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests and the programme of work of the United Nations Forum on Forests.

The Forum also had before it a note by the Secretariat on the Accreditation of intergovernmental organizations to the United Nations Forum on Forests (document E/CN.18/2001/9), in which the activities of the following organizations had been judged relevant to the Forum’s work and approved by its Bureau:  Center for International Forestry Research; International Tropical Timber Organization, and the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe.  The note recommended that those organizations be given observer status by the Forum.

The Forum was also expected to consider its provisional agenda (document E/CN.18/2001/4).  

Membership

The officers of the Bureau are:  Mubarak Hussein Rahmtalla (Sudan), Chairman; Slamet Hidayat (Indonesia), Alexey Kornienko (Russian Federation), and Gustavo Suarez de Freitas (Peru), Vice-Chairmen.

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