World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development
The world can satisfy its material needs from forests without jeopardizing their ecological services, says the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, a group initiated by former top world leaders, which today released its report “Our Forests…Our Future.”
After conducting hearings on five continents over the past three years, the Commission concludes that changing the way we value and manage our forests both development and forests can be sustained.
From Siberia to Haiti, the world’s forests are today exploited far beyond their ability to reproduce. Nearly 75 percent of West Africa’s tropical forests have been lost since 1950. Thailand lost a third of its forests in just 10 years, during the 1980’s. Forests face an even shakier future with the global population expected to grow 50 percent in the next half century.
“Fixing the forest crisis is basically a matter of politics,” said Ola Ullsten, Co‑Chairman of the Commission and a former Swedish Prime Minister.
“It is about governments assuming their mandate to protect their natural resources ‑ including forests ‑ for the long term benefit of their citizens.”
“Due to its independence and broad international representation, the Commission has tried to address the most pressing global forest issues from a unique perspective” said Commission member from Germany, Dr. Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP.
The Commission advocates “a set of global, national and local level arrangements to involve people in all decisions concerning their forests” called Forestrust with four components:
Forest Watch ‑ A network connecting ordinary citizens with decision makers. Forest Watch would also gather, analyze and disseminate information on forests.
Forest Management Council ‑ An institution to standardize sustainable practices including eco‑labeling of forest products and certification.
Forest Ombudsman ‑ to identify and pass objective non advocacy judgements on corruption, inequity and abuse in forest operations.
Forest Award ‑ A way to recognize and reward good performance in sustainable forest management.
The Report also challenges the handful of countries with some 85% of the world’s forests to exercise leadership through a Forest Security Council, modeled partly on the G-8 but also involving the science, business and NGO communities. “Policy making would be accelerated in the UN and other inter‑governmental forums by establishing a Forest Security Council” said the Commission member from Nigeria Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Secretary General of the Commonwealth.
“There is clear link between degraded forests and poverty.” said Dr. Emil Salim, Co‑Chairman of the Commission and a former Indonesian Minister of Environment and Population. “We estimate that one billion of the world’s poorest people in about 30 heavily deforested countries would be alleviated from poverty if given government support for managing neighboring public forest land and sharing the benefits within their communities.”
Today, virtually the only economic value officially assigned to forests is in timber. The report suggests the introduction of a Forest Capital Index. Such a measure would take into account forests as the largest reservoir for plants and animals on land, their role in maintaining supplies of clean water, in creating and retaining soil, in contributing to the productivity of fisheries and agriculture, and even helping to regulate climate.
The Forest Capital Index would permit decision makers to evaluate progress in sustaining forest capital in each country, facilitate a global framework to estimate the value of eco‑system services provided by forests and create the basis for market mechanisms to compensate developing countries for ecological services.
To accommodate a growing population’s need of more land for food production the Report recommends making better use of the millions of hectares of degraded land left behind both by poor agriculture practices and mismanaged forests through an “Evergreen Revolution.”
“Despite unintended environmental consequences of the Green Revolution, it not only saved millions of people from starvation but also millions of hectares of forests from encroachment by agriculture,” said Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, India, Commission member and one of the architects behind the Green Revolution of the sixties. “Now it is critically important for the world to take the best of that era’s accomplishments and merge them with a new generation of ideas through an Evergreen Revolution.”
“The Forests have a role in supplying the world with timber and fiber,” said Commission member Dr. George Woodwell of the Woods Hole Research Center, USA. “But while those products can be partly substituted, the forests’ ecological services for a functioning world cannot. That is what the forest crisis is all about.”
* * *
Background:
World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development
Following the Earth Summit in 1992 it was agreed that solutions to forest degradation are
likely to be more political than technical. Accordingly, the InterAction Council, a group of some 30 former heads of Government and State, including Canada’s Pierre Trudeau, decided to establish an independent commission to:
Increase awareness of the dual function of world forests in preserving the natural environment and contributing to economic development;
Broaden the consensus on the data, science and policy aspects of forest conservation and management;
Build confidence between North and South on forest matters with emphasis on international co‑operation.
Through a series of regional hearings, modeled on the Brundtland Commission, the WCFSD consulted stakeholder groups to recommend policy reforms aimed at reconciling economic and environmental objectives for sustainable management of global forests.
News release in full, here
Coverage summary here
Example coverage
| Associated Press (300 words) |
| Canadian Press (492 words) |
| La Presse Canadienne (586 words) |
| Interpress Service |
| Southam News Service |
| Torstar News Service |
| Toronto Star (A5) |
| Globe & Mail (A6) |
| La Presse (Montreal) (front page) (CP) |