World Bank & WWF Announce New Efforts to Conserve Earth's Forests
6/26/97
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
Following is an exciting announcement from WWF and the World Bank of a
collaborative commitment to pursue the establishment of an
ecologically representative network of temperate and tropical forest
protected areas covering at least 10% of each of the world's forests
types by the year 2000; as well as commitment to bring 200 million
hectares under real sustainable, certified forestry management by
the year 2005 (from virtually none now).
The 10% protected area goal is a worthy starting point, given many
countries failure to meet this hurdle. Increasingly conservation set
asides are being viewed as but one strategy (albeit very important) to
maintain large scale forest cover and accompanying ecological
processes. Certification is a complementary movement to verify that
forest management practices are environmentally, socially and
economically sound and allow consumers to know this when buying timber
products. On a landscape, ideally strictly protected areas could be
buffered by the certified management areas, allowing forest ecosystem
processes to benefit from larger areas and an intact ecological core.
One thing is for sure: righteous forest and biodiversity conservation
and management is going to take money and environmental know-how. The
renewed commitment by the World Bank and WWF to specific conservation
goals will be an important component of multi-faceted efforts
necessary to combat clearly worsening forest conditions worldwide.
The piece ends with an informative forest fact sheet illustrating the
dimensions of the forest crisis.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
For Immediate Release
WWF The World Bank
News Release No. 97
World Bank Contact: David Theis (202) 473-1955
WWF Contact: Lee Poston (202) 778-9536
UNITED NATIONS, June 25, 1997--In a positive new move for the
conservation of the world's forests, the World Bank and WWF have
announced a global alliance for forest conservation and sustainable
use. Both organizations share concern for biodiversity, climate
change, deforestation and forest degradation, and recognize the
urgency of dealing with these problems. Both groups agree that their
effectiveness would be greatly increased through a strategic
partnership which takes advantage of common goals and skills.
In the alliance, the two organizations agree that:
* _a network of protected areas should be established_ across both
developing and developed countries, which would include at least 10
percent of each of the world's major forest types by the year 2000;
and
* _large areas of natural forests in developing countries and
transitional economies should be brought under real sustainable
management_ starting from a negligible amount today, the Bank and WWF
will work with countries to sustainably manage a target of 100 million
ha of temperate and colder, northern forests as well as the same
amount of tropical forests, by the year 2005.
During the United Nations General Assembly Session in New York, the
World Bank announced that, to reach the agreed targets, the Bank, in
partnership with WWF and other conservation organizations, will help
client countries establish an additional 50 million hectares of new
forest protected areas in its client countries and bring an additional
200 million hectares of the world's forests under independent
certification by the year 2005.
Despite lengthy consultations among governments and rising concern
from the public since the Rio Earth Summit, deforestation has
increased dramatically in the past five years.
Tropical forests disappear at the rate of nearly one percent per year,
with the annual deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon increasing
34 percent since Rio. The Bank and WWF believe this partnership
represents concrete steps that will produce measurable results and
reverse the tide of deforestation.
The World Bank is the largest lender to developing countries for
forest conservation and management. WWF is one of the world's leading
conservation organizations, working in more than 100 countries.
Within those countries, it has close working relationships with local
communities, nongovernmental agencies and the private sector. These
qualities will allow the organizations to work jointly on the four key
areas of the partnership: protected areas; forest certification;
creating a coalition of interest groups involved in forest use and
management; and developing and encouraging creative, new methods of
forest management and conservation.
WWF's forests work is part of its 1,000-day Living Planet Campaign,
designed to persuade the world to save earth's most outstanding
habitats and wildlife.
###
FACT SHEET
* Almost half of the earth's original forest cover is gone, much of
it destroyed within the past three decades. Seventy-five percent of
the world's large intact forests in the temperate and tropical regions
are now threatened. Between 50 and 90 percent of all land species on
earth inhabit the world's forests (Source: World Resources Institute,
1997)
* Of the 3,300 million hectares (8,000 million acres) of forests
remaining on the earth, only 6 percent are currently in legally
protected areas. (Source: WWF, 1997)
* WWF and the World Bank today are promoting the establishment of
an ecologically representative network of protected areas, covering at
least 10 percent of each of the world's forest types by the year 2000.
At least an additional 129 million hectares (319 million acres) of
forests need to be included under protected area status to achieve the
minimum of 10 percent. In this context, the World Bank's commitment
today to help establish 50 million hectares (124 million acres) of new
forest protected areas in its client countries is a highly significant
contribution to global forest conservation. The commitment to
independent certification of 200 million hectares of well managed
forests is also highly significant in this context.
* So far this year, 20 governments have also committed to the
target of the establishment of an ecologically representative network
of protected areas, covering at least 10 percent of each of the
world's forest types by the year 2000. They are: Argentina, Armenia,
Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, the People's Republic of
China, Colombia, Greece, Lithuania, Malawi, Mozambique, New Zealand,
Nicaragua, Romania, the Russian Republic of Sakha, the Slovak
Republic, Tunisia and Uzbekistan. The People's Republic of China
announced its commitment on Monday, 23 June, 1997, during UNGASS
(Source: WWF Forests for Life Campaign, 1977)
* WWF's forests work is part of its 1,000-day Living Planet
Campaign, designed to persuade the global community to help save
earth's most outstanding wildlife and wilderness areas. WWF is
currently implementing 350 forest projects in over 50 countries.
* Despite lengthy consultations among governments, and rising
concerns from the public since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit,
deforestation has increased dramatically in the past 5 years.
Tropical forests are disappearing at the rate of nearly one percent
per year, with the annual deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon
increasing 34 percent since Rio.
* Independent certification verifies that forest management
practices are environmentally, socially and economically sound and
allows consumers to purchase products from well-managed forests.
* The World Bank is by far the largest individual source of
development finance for forests and forestry. The average annual
approvals of Bank lending for forest projects for the 5-year period of
1992-1996 was 356.7 million dollars. In addition, there is 23 million
dollars in annual grant approvals from the Global Environment Facility
for biodiversity projects in forest ecosystems.