08/17/01 -- Has the Time Come for a Forest Conservation Convention?

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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Has the Time Come for a Forest Conservation Convention?

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08/17/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

Any successful end game to protect the World's forests and

biodiversity is likely to require a binding and rigorous

international agreement. There are many potential pitfalls,

including the potential for drafting of a weak meaningless protocol.

But an international commitment to maintaining ecosystems,

biodiversity and indigenous livelihoods is urgently required if the

Earth and its life is to be sustained. Essential elements of a

comprehensive Forest Convention would include strict protection for

the World's remaining large old-growth wildlands, significant

financial support from overdeveloped countries to governments and

local communities, protections of continued levels of traditional

benign use of forests by their indigenous occupants, establishment of

mandatory rigorous management standards for regenerating forests,

massive scientific research into biodiversity and how habitats work,

and beginning to identify and carry out restoration activities in

fragmented forest landscapes that are of high conservation value.

There are many countries that will resist such measures. But the

international political consequences of failing to protect global

ecological values must be so strong, the incentives must be so

massive, and the political commitment so firm that required actions

are taken soon to protect the Earth's biological heritage and

ecological infrastructure. The fact that industrial liquidation of

ancient forests is no longer acceptable must be enshrined in

international law. We can do it now when the resources are abundant

and chance of success high, or we can do it later when widespread

ecosystem collapse is occurring and despite the urgency it may be too

late.

g.b.

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Title: Top U.N. official calls for Kyoto-style accord on

deforestation, biodiversity

Date: August 1, 2001

Byline: By MARK STEVENSON

MEXICO CITY - The top U.N. environmental official called Wednesday

for a Kyoto-style agreement on reducing deforestation and preserving

biodiversity, areas he called two of the world's top priorities.

The new agreement, apparently to be proposed at the World Summit on

Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, would

include the kind of concrete targets contained in the Kyoto accord on

reducing greenhouse gases. ''Next to climate change, the main

challenge for the world is the decrease in biodiversity and forest

cover,'' said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N.

Environment Program. He was in Mexico City this week meeting with top

officials, including President Vicente Fox.

Toepfer and others barely saved the Kyoto agreement earlier this year

by allowing developed nations to gain credit for their own emissions

by supporting nature projects in developing countries.

The United States supports such emissions-credits and wants to

negotiate aid-for-conservation programs in Mexico, an approach that

also appears tailor-made for the new U.N. proposal.

Noting that poor nations have the most diverse plant and animal life,

but get no direct gain from preserving it, Toepfer said ''we must

find a solution so that those countries responsible for conservation

also get some kind of benefit.''

''As we have in climate change, we should have quantifiable targets

for reducing deforestation and preserving biodiversity,'' he said

during a news conference.

Toepfer also suggested the concerns of anti-globalization protesters

might be taken up at the Johannesburg summit, saying developed

nations should ask: ''How can we make the trade process benefit the

poor and the environment, and not be, as many now see it, at their

expense?''

''The most toxic substance in the world is poverty,'' Toepfer said

''The second most toxic element are the consumption patterns in the

developed world.''

Any new agreement may be an uphill battle. The United States still

opposes the Kyoto accords, which it argues would hurt that nation's

economy. Toepfer urged the U.S. government to rejoin Kyoto instead of

seeking bilateral agreements on reducing greenhouse gases.

Asked whether he discussed the U.S. bilateral approach on climate

change, Toepfer said that in his meeting with Fox ''we underlined the

importance of the multilateral solution.''

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