Environmental NGOs Announce Opposition to Forestry Treaty

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

2/15/97

OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE

Concerned that recently commenced negotiations on a global forest

convention will result in weak, unenforceable regulations; most major

forest conservation groups have come out against an international

forestry convention at this time. Following is the NGO's forest

convention declaration which lists their points of concern; including

the believe that a forest convention will enshrine weak standards,

favor commercial interests, undermine the biodiversity convention, all

while avoiding real issues and limiting local efforts to rigorously

conserve and manage forest resources. A call is made for an

alternative strategy which includes reforming policies that undermine

sustainable forestry and expanding democratic principles.

While international standards and cooperation will certainly be

necessary to turn the tide of forest decline; I share the skepticism

of whether another weak, ineffective and unenforceable treaty will

merely distract attention from more real efforts to deal with the

forest crisis. Following are two items; the first which details the

NGO stance prior to the intergovernmental panel meeting at the United

Nations, and the second which is the actual NGO statement.

Glen Barry

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

ITEM #1:

Environmentalists line up against proposal for global forest

convention

February 10, 1997

2.09 p.m. EST (1909 GMT)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- In a major shift, more than 80 of the world's

major environmental groups lined up Monday beside the U.S. timber

industry to oppose a Canadian-led plan for a global treaty to manage

the world's forests.

"Now is not the time to negotiate a global forest convention," Bill

Mankin, director of the Global Forest Policy Project, said. "In a

word, a forest convention now is bad timing and bad politics."

An intergovernmental panel is to begin meeting Tuesday at the United

Nations to consider proposals for implementing various proposals for

protecting the world's forests.

Canada, the 15-nation European Union, Malaysia and Indonesia have

called for an international convention to set down rules for managing

the world's remaining forests.

Supporters of a convention hope to convince the panel to recommend it

to the 185-member General Assembly at a special session in June.

During a press conference, Mankin and representatives from the World

Wildlife Federation, Greenpeace, the Green Earth Organization and

others said a convention now would limit the role of grass-roots

conservation groups and give a green light to "unsustainable forest

practices."

Canada's natural resources minister, Anne McLellan, has said such a

convention would protect both the environment and the country's timber

industry.

"It's to ensure we're not held hostage to environment terrorism,"

McLellan told the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association in Montreal on

Jan. 31. She was referring to protests against forest-clearing and

pulp mill emissions.

U.S. timber companies also oppose the convention for different

reasons.

Henson Moore, president of the American Forest and Paper Association,

told Canadian Press that American companies fear a convention would

result in audits by U.N. agencies and put them at a disadvantage

against competitors from countries which do not enforce the treaty.

Mankin said the environmentalists support the idea of an international

convention but not at this time. In a joint statement, the

environmentalists said the problem of protecting forests required

"effective regional, national or local action" and not another treaty

which could take years to negotiate.

"The international process should focus on properly implementing and

evaluating existing instruments before commencing a new global

project," the statement said.

ITEM #2:

/** rainfor.genera: 157.0 **/

** Topic: Forest Convention Declaration **

** Written 7:35 PM Feb 10, 1997 by bmankin in cdp:rainfor.genera **

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OVER EIGHTY ORGANIZATIONS FROM SIX CONTINENTS ANNOUNCE

OPPOSITION TO GLOBAL FOREST CONVENTION

New York CONTACT:

10 February 1997 Bill Mankin

Global Forest Policy Project

TEL: 202-797-6560

FAX: 202-797-6560

E-Mail: <bmankin@igc.apc.org>

The following declaration was released today at a press

conference in New York on the eve of the fourth and final session

of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Forests:

INTERNATIONAL CITIZEN DECLARATION

AGAINST A GLOBAL FOREST CONVENTION

Because we are first and foremost concerned about the fate of the

world's forests and the people who depend on forests for their

subsistence and survival, the undersigned citizens' organizations

hereby declare our firm opposition to the negotiation of a global

forest convention at this time. We call on world leaders to reject

a convention, and instead to pursue an alternative strategy to

safeguard the world's forests from further decline.

Our organizations, representing millions of people worldwide,

believe that a forest convention negotiated at this time not only

will fail to effectively safeguard the world's forests, but could

actually threaten them. We believe negotiation of such a premature

convention:

* ENSHRINING WEAK STANDARDS

will only be able to achieve political consensus on the

weakest, lowest-common-denominator commitments, and could

formalize unacceptably weak forest management standards,

thereby giving a global 'green light' to unsustainable forest

practices and crippling several existing, and stronger, forest

initiatives;

* FAVORING COMMERCIAL TRADE INTERESTS

will be dominated and driven by powerful timber and commercial

trade interests, and fail to address the predatory and

unethical behavior of an increasing number of trans-national

industrial timber corporations;

* UNDERMINING THE BIODIVERSITY CONVENTION

will undermine the role of the historic Convention on

Biological Diversity and other existing, yet largely

unfulfilled, international and regional environmental

agreements and initiatives;

* AVOIDING THE REAL ISSUES

will ignore or avoid some of the world's most critical and

controversial forest problems, many of which lie outside the

traditional 'forest' sector, and will fail to effectively

address the chronic underlying causes of forest loss and

degradation;

* THREATENING CITIZEN INITIATIVES

will risk undermining important non-governmental initiatives

(e.g., the independent certification of forest management and

forest products), and could undermine the ability of

indigenous peoples and traditional rural communities to help

decide the fate of their own forests; and

* DELAYING DECISIVE ACTION

will stall or block action on a wide range of critical forest

problems during years of lengthy debate, negotiation, and

ratification -- a waste of scarce time and resources that

could be better applied to solving real forest problems and

implementing existing agreements.

There is no clear evidence that a global forest convention is

either necessary or desirable. Despite repeated calls by citizen

groups for such a study, a thorough assessment of existing forest-

related agreements and institutions has never been undertaken to

determine what, if anything, is missing that could only be

addressed by a new global convention.

The overriding interest of our organizations is not in documents

and protracted debate, but in solutions and results. The vehicle

is not the goal. Unfortunately, some convention proponents seem

far more interested in the 'idea' of a convention, or in

proclaiming their support for a convention, rather than in what it

would contain or whether it would actually solve forest problems.

Furthermore, until more governments implement their existing

commitments to protect forests and use them sustainably, it is

difficult to have any confidence that they will effectively

implement a new convention, whatever its contents.

In our view, to suggest at this time that a forest convention would

help safeguard the world's forests is, at best, naive, and would

seriously mislead the public. At worst it would betray many well-

intentioned heads-of-state and other political leaders who may be

seeking an effective response to public demand for more sustainable

forest management.

AN ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY

A much more effective response to that public demand would make

full use of existing international agreements and mechanisms to

take timely action; would take a strategic, problem-solving

approach to eliminating the underlying causes of global forest

decline; and would build broader international consensus through

a variety of regional, bilateral and focused multilateral

agreements. The most important components of such a strategy would

include:

- Reforming agriculture, trade, development, land tenure and

macro-economic policies that undermine sustainable forest

management, and addressing the impact of forest product

consumption patterns.

- Prohibiting trade-distorting policies, particularly subsidies,

that undermine sustainable forest management.

- Expanding the use of democratic principles and processes to

further empower civil society to implement sustainable forest

management, and securing the lands and customary rights of

indigenous and other traditional peoples.

- Thoroughly assessing existing forest-related agreements,

institutions and programs; and establishing an effective

international mechanism to coordinate, regularly monitor and

report on their implementation, to increase their efficiency,

and to eliminate redundancies and wasted resources.

- Curtailing the trade in illegally harvested forest products.

- Setting strong and equitable forest concession standards for

trans-national corporations.

- Ensuring the protection of the world's forest biodiversity by,

among other means, filling the gaps in the global network of

protected forest areas.

Finally, we must emphasize that we make this declaration only after

careful consideration. We acknowledge that multilateral policy

instruments of the right kind at the right time can play an

important role in promoting sustainable development. Nevertheless,

until the aforementioned conditions change, our organizations will

remain opposed to the negotiation of a global forest convention.

We urge governments to give serious consideration to the concerns

we have expressed in this declaration. As the multilateral forest

policy debate continues, our organizations stand ready to engage in

full and open dialogue with policy-makers both within and outside

of government to explore the most effective way forward.

This declaration is an expression of the views of the following

organizations:

AFRICA

African Forest Action Network (AFAN)

Forest Action Network - Kenya

Green Earth Organization - Ghana

ASIA & RUSSIA

Citizens Alliance for Saving the Atmosphere and the Earth (CASA)-

Japan

Consumers Union of Japan

Far Eastern Information Center - Russia

Friends of the Earth-Japan

Friends of Siberian Forests - Russia

Indonesian Green Nature Foundation

Indonesian Institute for Forest and Environment

Indonesian Tropical Institute

Japan Rainforest Protection Lawyers' League (JARPLL)

Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN)

Peoples' Forum 2001 Japan

Plasma Foundation - Indonesia

Sarawak Campaign Committee - Japan

Socio-Ecological Union - Russia

Telapak Indonesia Foundation

Utan Group - Japan

WALHI / Friends of the Earth-Indonesia

EUROPE

AK Regenwald Aschaffenburg - Germany

ARA (Working Group on Rainforests and Biodiversity) - Germany

Amici della Terra Italia - Friends of the Earth Italy

Bruno-Manser-Fonds - Switzerland

Coalition for Environment and Development - Finland

Friends of the Earth-England, Wales & Northern Ireland - U.K.

Friends of the Earth-Finland

Irish Woodworkers for Africa - Ireland

Netherlands Committee for the IUCN

Pro REGENWALD - Germany

Robin Wood e.V. - Germany

Reforest the Earth - U.K.

Swedish Society for Nature Conservation

Youth and Environment Europe (YEE) - Netherlands

LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN

ALTER VIDA - Paraguay

Amazon NGO Network (GTA - Grupo de Trabalho Amazonico) - Brazil

Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios Comunitarios (CIEC) -

Bolivia

Comite Nacional Pro-Defensa de la Fauna y Flora (CODEFF) - Chile

Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible A.C. -

Mexico

Friends of the Earth Amazonia Program - Brazil

Fundacion Ecotropico - Colombia

Fundacion Natura - Ecuador

Fundacion Peruana para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza - Peru

Grupo de Estudios Ambientales A.C. - Mexico

Instituto AMBIO - Costa Rica

Instituto Sul Mineiro de Estudo e Preservacao da Natureza -

Brazil

Movimiento Ambientalista Nicaraguense (MAN) - Nicaragua

Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA) - Peru

NORTH AMERICA

Alberta ENGO Forest Caucus - Canada

The Arctic to Amazonia Alliance - U.S.

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - Edmonton Chapter

Center for International Environmental Law - U.S.

Cochrane Ecological Institute - Canada

Cultural Survival Canada

Defenders of Wildlife - U.S.

Environmental Defense Fund - U.S.

Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs - U.S.

Friends of the Athabasca Environmental Association - Canada

Friends of the Christmas Mountains - Canada

Friends of the Earth-U.S.

Good Wood Alliance - U.S.

Humber Environment Action Group - Canada

Manitoba Future Forest Alliance - Canada

Manitoba Naturalists Society - Canada

National Wildlife Federation - U.S.

Natural Resources Defense Council - U.S.

Northwatch - Canada

Nova Scotia Environment and Development Coalition - Canada

Okanagan Similkameen Parks Society - Canada

Pacific Environment and Resources Center - U.S.

Rainforest Action Network - U.S.

Sierra Club - U.S.

Sierra Club of Canada

Smith Environmental Association - Canada

Voice of the Earth Society - Canada

Western Ancient Forest Campaign - U.S.

OCEANIA

NFN Southern Hemisphere - Australia

Rainforest Information Centre - Australia

INTERNATIONAL

Friends of the Earth International

Greenpeace International

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

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