The International Year of Forests was launched at United Nations Headquarters in New York on a day when ice, rain and snow were blanketing the region, yet the point of the observance was to heighten awareness of the value of forests in people’s lives and to galvanize action for forests around the world, correspondents heard today at a press conference highlighting the Forest Film Festival.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
As the United Nations kicked off the International Year of Forests today at Headquarters, a renowned environmental activist urged Governments and other stakeholders worldwide to take action to protect the planet’s vital forestry resources on which 1.6 billion depended for their livelihood and subsistence.
The latest report of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), entitled True Economic Value of Forests, was premised on the notion that a better evaluation of what forests were worth would generate direct benefits for poor forest dwellers, open up new markets and affect global economic growth, correspondents learned today at a Headquarters press conference.
Bolivia would continue its campaign to remove from a United Nations convention a ban on coca leaf chewing and take its case to the Economic and Social Council, if necessary, Pablo Solón, the country’s Permanent Representative said today at a Headquarters press conference. “Coca leaf chewing is a tradition and cultural practice that should be respected,” Mr. Solón said, sporting a green coca leaf on his lapel.
The United Nations peacebuilding architecture was bolstering its ability to help post-conflict nations avoid the all-too-common fate of relapsing into violence after the departure of peacekeeping missions, Peter Wittig (Germany), outgoing Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, said today.
Reporting on her humanitarian mission to Sri Lanka last week, Catherine Bragg, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that the humanitarian needs in that country were “still significant” and activities should be stepped up to address the most critical.
French judicial authorities had agreed to surrender rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana to face trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, ending years of attempts to apprehend him for alleged participation in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Court’s Chief Prosecutor, said at a Headquarters press conference.
A race was under way between Somali pirates and the rest of the world and, without fast, strong action, “we will reach a point of no return where we will be unable to turn things around”, warned the United Nations top official charged with tackling the legal issues related to Somali piracy.
The success of the new United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in its quest to advance the status of women and girls worldwide depended largely on the efforts of many different actors, but above all, on the political will and the work of the United Nations, Governments, civil society, and the media, said its Executive Director, Michelle Bachelet.
In the wake of a unanimous Security Council decision this morning to strengthen by 2,000 troops the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Côte d’Ivoire — where a power struggle persisted over the presidential election result — the possibility of genocide and related crimes were of grave concern, said United Nations experts during a press conference at New York Headquarters today.