FAO Calls for Doubled Efforts against Deforestation
10/14/97
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Headline: FAO Calls for Doubled Efforts against Deforestation
Source: Reuters
Date: 10/14/97
Byline: Ercan Ersoy
Copyright 1997 by Reuters
ANTALYA, Turkey, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Efforts to manage the
world's forests should be doubled to slow down deforestation and
enhance their economic value, an official from the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Tuesday.
``Let us all challenge ourselves to redouble our efforts to
manage the world's forests in ways that enhance their
environmental and economic values,'' said David Harcharik, head
of the forestry department of FAO, which has 174 member
governments.
He told an international forestry congress in the Turkish
resort town of Antalya that the concept of sustainable forestry
management would help reach that goal.
``(The concept) includes en environmental dimension that
aims at the perpetual maintenance of the resource, an economic
dimension that includes production of commodities and services,
and a social dimension that involves people...,'' he said.
His comments came after months of acute air pollution
problems across parts of southeast Asia sparked by forests
burning out of control.
The Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur saw its skyline shrouded
in smog generated in part by huge fires in Indonesia. Many in
the region reported respiratory ailments and some schools were
suspended briefly to keep children at home.
``If trees and forests are to deliver their full potential
to sustainable development they must be considered from a broad,
holistic viewpoint and managed accordingly,'' Harcharik said.
A major threat for the world's forest cover is the opening
up of lands by farmers who need more arable area, he said.
``We have not done enough to ensure that forests are more
valuable as forests than under some other form of land use,'' he
said.
According to FAO statistics, some 13.7 million hectares of
the world's forests are being cleared for other forms of land
use in developing countries each year, but down from 15.5
million hectares per year a during the previous decade.
Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General, told the congress that
his organisation spent $60 million last year to give technical
expertise to member countries under the Forestry Field Programme
to fight problems facing forestry.
Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, who addressed the
congress opening late on Monday, cited U.N. statistics that said
some 90 million hectares of new land would be brought into
agriculture from forest cover in developed countries by 2010.
He called for an international cooperation to join forces
against forest fires, which has recently destroyed a significant
cover of the Mediterranean forests.
``Forest fires are especially an acute problem in the
Mediterranean basin,'' he said.
Fires destroyed thousands of hectares of pine forests in the
Antalya region, known as the Turkish Riviera, and around
Marmaris, a tourist resort on the southwestern tip of Turkey in
June and July.
Harcharik said the annual contribution of the value of
fuelwood and wood-based forest products to the global economy
was estimated to be around $400 billion, or about two percent of
the global economic product.
Jeffrey Burley, president of the International Union of
Research Organisations (IUFRO), told the congress that political
will, mission-oriented research programmes and an information
base were needed for forestry for sustainable development.