Canada Seeks Legally-Binding Agreement on Forests
6/24/97
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Subject: Canada seeks legally-binding agreement on forests
Organization: Copyright 1997 by Reuters
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997
UNITED NATIONS, June 24 (Reuter) - Canadian Prime Minister
Jean Chretien called on Tuesday for a legally-binding
agreement to preserve the world's forests and said their
development was a high Canadian priority.
``The forests of the world continue to decline at an
alarming rate. Sustainable forest management is a high
Canadian priority,'' he said in a speech at the U.N. Earth
Summit attended by more than 170 countries, including many
heads of state or government.
``We are convinced that this special session presents a
unique opportunity to achieve an international forest
convention through the creation of an intergovernmental
negotiation committee,'' said Chretien, whose country accounts
for about 10 percent of the world's forests.
As he spoke, police in King Island, British Columbia,
arrested about 25 Greenpeace activitists protesting at the
cutting down of old-growth forests.
And at the United Nations, Thilo Bode, executive director
of the of Greenpeace International, said: ``How can we ask
Brazil to stop the illegal logging and clearing in Amazonia
when two of the world's wealthiest nations, Canada and the
United States, are, as I speak, logging their last remaining
rainforests into extinction.''
Chretien said a convention would also help Canada to
achieve its own forest management goals. Canada is the world's
largest exporter of paper and pulp.
Many environmentalists oppose an international forest
convention, fearing it would take years to negotiate and be
ratified, and end up formalising weak, non-binding standards.
While the European Union, Malaysia and Russia are among
countries which, like Canada, favour a convention, the United
States, Brazil, India and Australia are among those opposed.
The environmentalists say better alternatives might
include a followup to a U.N.-created Intergovernmental Panel
on Forests that has made over 1,000 non-binding proposals, or
action through existing treaties such as those on biological
diversity.
Chretien also acknowledged that Canada would not ``meet
the year 2000 targets for stabilising greenhouse gas
emissions,'' as set out in Rio, much less the tighter ones
proposed by the European Union.
But he said Canada supported ``legally-binding medium-term
targets for post-2000 greenhouse gas reductions'' although he
did not say what they were. Industrial states are meeting in
Kyoto, Japan, in December to work out the targets.
Chretien said Canada's winter climate was a problem in its
high fuel consumption and that negotiations on the issue were
necessary with provincial governments and the private sector.
He said Germany was able to reach its goals only by
shutting down coal industries in the eastern part of the
country while Britain had switched to natural gas ``because it
was available.''