Getting the Price of the Forests Right

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

4/5/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

It is being proposed that countries be rewarded for not exploiting

forests through the development of a concept called "forest capital"

which would be calculated as a product of the opportunity cost of not

exploiting these resources on a sustainable basis. The focus would be

upon ecological capital as the basis of development. The article

indicates that before the end of the decade, another 30 million

hectares of forests could be lost, a situation which would "change the

character of the planet."

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Getting the Price of the Forests Right

Source: InterPress Service

Status: Copyright, contact source to reprint

Date: March 27, 1998

Byline: Wesley Gibbings

/** reg.carib: 199.0 **/

** Topic: IPS: ENVIRONMENT-CARIBBEAN: Getting the Price of the Forests

Right **

** Written 2:46 PM Mar 27, 1998 by newsdesk in cdp:reg.carib **

Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.

*** 24-Mar-98 ***

Title: Getting the Price of the Forests Right

By Wesley Gibbings

PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 24 (IPS) - A group of leading scientists, thinkers

and policy makers is proposing a new global system to measure the

economic value of unexploited forests through the formulation of a

mechanism being described as "forest capital".

The proposal was explored here Tuesday by Indonesian co-chairman of

the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, Professor

Emil Salim.

Salim, a former government minister in his native Indonesia, says it

is possible to divide world forest users into two main groups --

exploiters and conservers.

Exploiters tend to focus on the ability of forests to deliver timber,

land for agriculture and abundant mining possibilities. "These people

are interested in getting rid of forests," he says.

Conservers, on the other hand, are interested in forests as

watersheds, habitats for people and animal species, as absorbers of

carbon and for eco-tourism.

The latter group's interests are not often given governmental

attention because an economic value is not usually attached to the use

of forests for those purposes.

Fellow commission member, American scholar Dr George Woodwell, adds

that "governments are weak when it comes to protecting the public

interests against commercial interests."

Salim's suggestion is that countries be rewarded for not exploiting

forests through the development of a concept called "forest capital"

which would be calculated as a product of the opportunity cost of not

exploiting these resources on a sustainable basis.

A value would thus be placed on the income foregone through not

exploiting the forests and "forest capital credits" granted by

international financial agencies. This, he says, would open the door

for "moving forest surfaces into the market economy."

Commission co-chairman, former Swedish Prime Minister Ola Ullsten,

agrees with this thesis and suggests that forestry products are, in

any event, grossly under-valued.

"We have almost systematically under-valued forestry products," he

says.

He suggests that it is time for greater focus on "ecological capital"

as a concept at the heart of the development process.

In the past, people thought of human needs only in terms of consumer

goods, but the importance of natural resources ought now to take

centre stage, Ullsten says.

"What is at the core of environmental degradation is the failure to

understand the importance of sustainable development. A stable and

secure environment is a basic human need," he argues.

Ullsten says the Commission has also come to the realisation that not

only are forests declining but that the products and services provided

by the forests are also disappearing.

He points to the fact that more people use forests as habitats than

the entire population of the United States of America.

"We live in a full world. We cannot anymore justify deforestation." He

adds that the situation was "a crisis requiring urgent attention" and

that since the 1992 Rio Summit, more than 90 million hectares of

forest have been lost.

He predicts that before the end of the decade, another 30 million

hectares could be lost, a situation that he says has the potential to

"change the character of the planet".

What is also evident, he adds, is that "the causes of the crisis have

their roots in human institutions."

"We can reverse it, or we can worsen it," he says. "We are not only

accidentally causing forest decline, but deliberately doing so."

To change the situation, Ullsten suggests that sacrifices will have to

be made. He says just as the world had moved from an industrial to a

post-industrial age, there should now be a move from non-sustainable

to sustainable society.

Changes in capital consumption "will lead us into a more stable

society environmentally," he says.

In that regard, he says he is encouraged by some positive signals,

especially "rising awareness among young people" and in some business

communities.

Ullsten revealed that the Report of the Commission, to be completed in

the coming months, will recommend that the world "get the prices of

forests right."

He says it is also necessary to "get planning right" with governments

setting aside "areas we want to protect."

The Commission co-chairman says it is important, as well, that the

world "get the ethics right" and that old positions have to change.

This, he says, almost certainly means "a case of more solidarity

between North and South for the benefit of all of us."

The Commission was appointed following the Earth Summit held in Rio de

Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. (end/ips/en/wg/cb/98)

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