Talks on Future of the World’s Forests Open in New York

NEW YORK, New York, February 13, 2006 (ENS) - Delegates from around the world gathered at United Nations headquarters in New York today for talks aimed at safeguarding the planet’s forests as well as the livelihoods of the hundreds of millions of people who depend on forests for their livelihood.

The United Nations Forum on Forests is meeting for two weeks to explore international arrangements that can control deforestation and promote sustainable forest management.

UN Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Jose Antonio Ocampo today told delegates at the Forum's opening session that "the alarming rate of deforestation is a major threat to sustainable development" and affects some of the world’s poorest people.

UN Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Jose Antonio Ocampo (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB))

“Given the impact on forests of population expansion, economic growth and environmental instability, it is not surprising [forest issues] have been at the center of several international negotiations,” said Ocampo.

“Sustainable forest management has become a major policy objective for many countries,” he said.

In this sixth session of the Forum, delegates again are considering the future of a legally binding International Agreement on Forests. Last year's fifth session, held in May, concluded without reaching agreement.

Judith Mbula Bahemuka, Kenya’s Representative to the UN, who is chairing this year's session, said global leaders gathered at UN Headquarters for the 2005 World Summit in September emphasized that forest issues cut across many developmental sectors.

Judith Mbula Bahemuka, Kenya’s Representative to the UN is chair of the Forum on Forests. (Photo courtesy ENB)

Setting clear and ambitious common global goals for sustainable forest management was important, Bahemuka said. She said the Forum's main focus should be on combating deforestation, promoting sustainable forest management, and enhancing the contribution of forests to the broader development agenda, and less so on the legally binding instrument.

Keith Christie of Canada told delegates his country has worked for 15 years to achieve a dedicated, effective and legally binding instrument on forests.

Christie said Canada, the world’s third largest forest country, is sceptical about whether a voluntary instrument could ever achieve the objectives of the Forum.

Anatoly Pisarenko, representing the Russian Federation said his country has more than one-fifth of the world’s forest resources. He said Russia seeks to conserve all types of forests at all levels, and his strategic goal is to further build on the International Arrangement.

In the very near future, Pisarenko said, Russia will develop a national action plan to combat the illegal logging and trade, for which rules and regulations are already being adopted.

China's representative Qu Guilin said that, despite differences among members, the present session is "critical to determining the future of the Forum and to the future management, conservation and sustainable development of forests at the global level."

China supports a legally binding International Agreement on Forests, said Qu, as an effective way of further raising the profile of forests on international political agendas and avoiding further fragmentation of the integrity of forest ecosystems.

Guayacan trees bloom on Barro Colorado Island, a heavily forested patch of land rising out of the waters of Gatun Lake at the northern end of the Panama Canal. (Photo courtesy Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute via NASA)

The Amazon region covers 60 percent of the Brazilian national territory, where more than 20 million people live, depending mostly on the use of its resources.

Brazilian delegate to the Forum Da Rocha Vianna said that forests are more than natural resources since they constitute a unique universe of complex social, political, economic and environmental aspects. He said Brazil is deeply engaged in developing strategies for promoting social participation in forest protection and in combating illegal logging.

Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva said in Brasilia on Thursday that deforestation declined nearly 41 percent in the state of Mato Grosso in 2005, more than the 31 percent average verified between August 2004, and July 2005, in the nine states that make up the Amazon region. The statistics were compiled by Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE).

The minister said the states of Pará and Rondônia also achieved reductions in their deforestation indices - around 28 percent in Pará and 18 percent in Rondônia. Despite these positive results, the minister judges the indices in these states still to be high. "Our big effort will be to keep this deforestation declining, since a good deal of the deforestation practiced there is illegal," she said.

At the Forum, Gabon’s Minister for Forests, Fisheries and National Parks Emile Doumba, speaking on behalf of the Commission on Forests of the Congo Basin, emphasized the importance of tropical forests in maintaining the global environmental balance.

The Commission is working to develop instruments for the conservation and sustainable management of Central African forest ecosystem, the world’s second largest after the Amazon, Doumba said.

Under the Yaoundé Declaration of March 1999, Central African heads of state and government had recalled the right of peoples to the use of their forest resources for social and economic development. The implementation of that joint political commitment had led to the creation of the Commission on Central African Forests founded at Brazzaville on February 5, 2005.

Nongovernmental organizations representing all women, youth, business, workers, land owners, indigenous peoples, local NGOs, scientists, and local authorities are participating in the Forum. Known as the major groups, they have a place at the negotiating table.

Nongovernmental organizations are participating in negotiations. (Photo courtesy ENB)

During previous Forum sessions the major groups had shared their views in a constructive and responsible manner, but governments had chosen to downgrade their contributions, Gleisner said. The unique circumstances of each group should be accurately reflected in the chair’s draft text, she said.

In order to ensure their effective contribution, there is a need to recognize the contributions of major groups at all levels, and a particular need to recognize the rights of indigenous groups, to secure land tenure and ownership rights, as well as decent labor rights and standards.

Giving poor forest dwellers access to basic financial services is a key element in helping them improve their living standards, according to a new publication released in January by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Opening up the possibility of taking out loans and saving money with interest is crucial to helping poor households who earn their living from forest products to establish their own small-scale enterprises,” said FAO forest expert Sophie Grouwels at the report's launch January 27.

The publication, "Microfinance and forest-based small-scale enterprises," funded by Norway, shows how microfinance can help low income households living in forest areas start up and run their own small businesses. Such forest-dwellers frequently live in remote areas where a lack of financial services is a major obstacle to developing successful business activities.