Deforestation: An Overview of Global Programs and Agreements

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CONTENTS FOR THIS SECTION

APPENDIX B: REVISED GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR THE TFAP
APPENDIX C: ITTO GUIDELINES FOR THE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL TROPICAL FORESTS
APPENDIX D: U.S. PRINCIPLES FOR A GLOBAL FOREST AGREEMENT
APPENDIX E: UNCED FOREST PRINCIPLES

APPENDIX B: REVISED GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR THE TFAP(50)

The goal of the Tropical Forestry Action Programme is to:

curb tropical forest loss by promoting the sustainable use of tropical forest resources to meet local and national needs.

Since many of the primary causes of deforestation reside outside the forestry sector, the resolution of conflicting demands upon forest resources is sought through emphasis on interdisciplinary and consultative approaches. This will be achieved by fostering local, national and international partnerships.

The approach of each [National Forestry Action Plan] is dependent upon the individual country, its stage of development, its political system and its forest resource situation. Whatever the country context is, the TFAP will seek to strengthen national capacity, both governmental and non-governmental, to develop and implement both plans for long-term strategies and immediate action. This will include supporting the countries in establishing:

• -policies and programmes to curb irrational deforestation and achieve sustainable forest use;
• -processes to ensure broad participation of forest users in decision-making; verifiable goals and targets against which success may be assessed;
• -an improved information base: monitoring, management, research and training capacity; and the other infrastructure needed to ensure the wise use of forest lands.

These strategies and action plans will give special consideration to urgent measures to:

• -ensure that forest resources contribute to the sustainable social and economic development of the nation, for example, through multipurpose afforestation;
• -promote effective coordination of policy and planning among all sectors whose activities have an impact on forest land use, particularly agriculture, livestock, forestry, mining, energy, with a particular emphasis on policies needed to secure the lands and livelihoods of rural communities;
• -foster policies, practices, incentives and investments which counter deforestation and unsustainable use, and which promote alternative uses;
• -minimize the loss of forests;
• -ensure that adequate areas of forest are preserved to protect biological diversity, conserve unique ecological systems and maintain the environmental services provided by forests and trees, especially by forested watersheds;
• -reclaim and restore areas of degraded land, recognizing that such areas may be suitable for the establishment of plantations which can meet national and local needs in ways that will reduce pressure on remaining indigenous forests, and that the use of indigenous species in such plantations can sometimes serve to reconcile conservation and development objectives;
• -develop national forestry and agroforestry institutions and human resources at all levels;
• -recognize, adjust and clarify the legal status of the rights and responsibilities of forest dwellers and other whose livelihoods depend on forest and land resources;
• -ensure the participation through information, consultation and incentives, at local, national and international levels, of rural communities in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of plans of action, especially indigenous, tribal and other forest-dependent peoples, and with particular attention to the participation of women;
• -support and build upon traditional uses of the forests by local people, including the use of non-timber forest products; and
• -ensure the availability of information on national and international TFAP processes to all parties having a legitimate interest in the use of forest resources.

APPENDIX D: U.S. PRINCIPLES FOR A GLOBAL FOREST AGREEMENT(52)

General Principles

1) Global Stewardship. Countries have a responsibility to engage in cooperative stewardship to improve global environmental quality for mutual benefit. They also have a sovereign right to manage their domestic natural resources pursuant to their domestic policies. Global stewardship and sustainable development depend upon the integration of healthy environmental quality and robust economic growth.

2) Global Participation. Improvements in the management of forest resources will have global benefits. All countries share an interest in promoting such benefits, and all should share in efforts to achieve them.

3) International Cooperation. Countries should be encouraged to realize their shared forestry goals through cooperative international arrangements. Such arrangements to improve forest resource management could include provision of education and training, research and monitoring, forest management planning expertise, and financial and technical assistance.

4) Comprehensive Coverage. All types of forests -- boreal, temperate, and tropical -- and all types of global forest benefits, including economic, environmental, social, and cultural -- should be addressed in an agreement. This includes attention to the sustainable use of forests for, inter alia, forest products, biodiversity, greenhouse gas sequestration, and indigenous peoples.

5) Flexible, Performance-Based Approach. Progress on forestry should be measured by the results obtained, to allow maximum scope for creative, diverse, innovative, and cost-effective policies that contribute to global forest benefits. Policies and practices should be flexible and able to respond to changing circumstances and new information. Countries should be able to pursue results through their own choices of specific forest management practices, both to respect the autonomy of sovereign states and to enhance the cost-effectiveness and dynamism of policies by allowing them to match local needs and opportunities.

6) Use of Market Mechanisms. To enhance flexibility and effectiveness, the use of market forces and mechanisms to achieve forestry goals should be encouraged, both domestically and internationally.

7) Integration on Policies. Policies should comport with forestry objectives in such areas as economics and trade (including taxes, subsidies and tariffs), financial and technical assistance, and property rights and land tenure.

Specific Principles Relating to Particular Forest Concerns

8) Sustainable Management. Promote sustainable management and stewardship of forests to meet present and future human needs for economic and ecological services. Act cooperatively for sustainable development combining healthy environmental quality and robust economic growth. Reduce adverse effects on forests by improving the efficiency of using land resources to meet human needs.

9) Conservation of Forest Diversity. Endeavor to conserve, maintain, restore, and enhance the biological diversity of forested ecosystems, including genetic, species, ecosystems, and landscape diversity.

10) Reforestation and Rehabilitation. Strive to maintain and increase the total quantity and quality of forests to the extent economically and environmentally justified and appropriate.

11) Climate Change. Seek to expand the use of forests as sinks and reservoirs for greenhouse gases, and to endeavor to help forests adapt to potential climate change and changing atmospheric composition.

12) Air Pollution. Seek appropriate actions to address the adverse effects of air pollution on forest growth and productivity wherever economically and environmentally justified.

13) Indigenous Peoples and Established Local Communities. Respect the needs of indigenous peoples who use forests as the basis for their livelihood, social organization or cultural identity. Recognize the need of established local communities which depend upon forest resources to have an economic stake in sustainable forest use. Raise local community awareness of the effects of their actions on forests and promote compatibility of their actions with attainment of forest management objectives.

14) Fuelwood and Energy. Find means to meet the demands for fuel for cooking, heating and other energy while avoiding deforestation and degradation of forests.

15) Economics and Trade. Integrate sustainable forest use objectives and policies with economic and trade policies. Harness market forces to achieve national, regional and international forest management goals. Foster use of debt-for-nature swaps and other innovative means.

16) Research and Inventory. Expand forestry research, inventory and monitoring of the biological, physical, social, economic and other key variables that affect or are components of forest resources, forest ecosystems, and forest use to meet multiple objectives.

17) Education and Training. Strengthen institutional capabilities, improve education in the science, technology and economics of forests and forest management, and ensure full public access to information and public input to the decision-making processes related to forest management.

18) Financial and Technical Assistance. Use financial and technical assistance resources fully and efficiently to help countries implement national, regional and international forestry programs aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of forests. Ensure that development assistance is consistent with sound forest use and stewardship.

APPENDIX E: UNCED FOREST PRINCIPLES(53)

1. (a) States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies and have the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other states or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.

(b) The agreed full incremental cost of achieving benefits associated with forest conservation and sustainable development requires increased international cooperation and should be equitably shared by the international community.

2. (a) States have the sovereign and inalienable right to utilize, manage and develop their forests in accordance with their development needs and level of socioeconomic development and on the basis of national policies consistent with sustainable development and legislation, including the conversion of such areas for other uses within the overall socioeconomic development plan and based on rational land-use policies.

(b) Forest resources and forest lands should be sustainably managed to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual human needs of present and future generations. These needs are for forest products and services, such as wood and wood products, water, food, fodder, medicine, fuel, shelter, employment, recreation, habitats for wildlife, landscape diversity, carbon sinks and reservoirs, and for other forest products. Appropriate measures should be taken to protect forests against harmful effects of pollution, including air-borne pollution, fires, pests and diseases in order to maintain their full multiple value.

(c) The provision of timely, reliable and accurate information on forests and forest ecosystems is essential for public understanding and informed decision-making and should be ensured.

(d) Governments should promote and provide opportunities for the participation of interested parties, including local communities and indigenous people, industries, labour, non-governmental organizations and individuals, forest dwellers and women, in the development, implementation and planning of national forest policies.

3. (a) National policies and strategies should provide a framework for increased efforts, including the development and strengthening of institutions

(b) International institutional arrangements, building on those organizations and mechanisms already in existence, as appropriate, should facilitate international cooperation in the field of forests.

(c) All aspects of environmental protection and social and economic development as they relate to forests and forest lands should be integrated and comprehensive.

4. The vital role of all types of forests in maintaining the ecological processes and balance at the local, national, regional and global levels through, inter alia, their role in protecting fragile ecosystems, watersheds and freshwater resources and as rich storehouses of biodiversity and biological resources and sources of genetic material for biotechnology products, as well as photosynthesis, should be recognized.

5. (a) National forest policies should recognize and duly support the identity, culture and the rights of indigenous people, their communities and other communities and forest dwellers. Appropriate conditions should be promoted for these groups to enable them to have an economic stake in forest use, perform economic activities, and achieve and maintain cultural identity and social organization, as well as adequate levels of livelihood and well-being, through, inter alia, those land tenure arrangements which serve as incentives for the sustainable management of forests.

(b) The full participation of women in all aspects of the management, conservation and sustainable development of forests should be actively promoted.

6. (a) All types of forests play an important role in meeting energy requirements through the provision of a renewable source of bio-energy, particularly in developing countries, and the demands for fuelwood for household and industrial needs should be met through sustainable forest management, afforestation and reforestation. To this end, the potential contribution of plantations of both indigenous and introduced species for the provision of both fuel and industrial wood should be recognized.

(b) National policies and programmes should take into account the relationship, where it exists, between the conservation, management and sustainable development of forests and all aspects related to the production, consumption, recycling and/or final disposal of forest products.

(c) Decisions taken on the management, conservation and sustainable development of forest resources should benefit, to the extent practicable, from a comprehensive assessment of economic and non-economic values of forest goods and services and of the environmental costs and benefits. The development and improvement of methodologies for such evaluations should be promoted.

(d) The role of planted forests and permanent agricultural crops as sustainable and environmentally sound sources of renewable energy and industrial raw material should be recognized, enhanced and promoted. Their contribution to the maintenance of ecological processes, to offsetting pressure on primary/old-growth forest and to providing regional employment and development with the adequate involvement of local inhabitants should be recognized and enhanced.

(e) Natural forests also constitute a source of goods and services, and their conservation, sustainable management and use should be promoted.

7. (a) Efforts should be made to promote a supportive international economic climate conducive to sustained and environmentally sound development of forests in all countries, which include, inter alias the promotion of sustainable patterns of production and consumption, the eradication of poverty and the promotion of food security.

(b) Specific financial resources should be provided to developing countries with significant forest areas which establish programmes for the conservation of forests including protected natural forest areas. These resources should be directed notably to economic sectors which would stimulate economic and social substitution activities.

8. (a) Efforts should be undertaken towards the greening of the world. All countries, notably developed countries, should take positive and transparent action towards reforestation, afforestation and forest conservation, as appropriate.

(b) Efforts to maintain and increase forest cover and forest productivity should be undertaken in ecologically, economically and socially sound ways through the rehabilitation, reforestation and re-establishment of trees and forests on unproductive, degraded and deforested lands, as well as through the management of existing forest resources.

(c) The implementation of national policies and programmer aimed at forest management, conservation and sustainable development, particularly in developing countries, should be supported by international financial and technical cooperation, including through the private sector, where appropriate.

(d) Sustainable forest management and use should be carried out in accordance with national development policies and priorities and on the basis of environmentally sound national guidelines. In the formulation of such guidelines, account should be taken, as appropriate and if applicable, of relevant internationally agreed methodologies and criteria.

(e) Forest management should be integrated with management of adjacent areas so as to maintain ecological balance and sustainable productivity.

(f) National policies and/or legislation aimed at management, conservation and sustainable development of forests should include the protection of ecologically viable representative or unique examples of forests, including primary/old-growth forests, cultural, spiritual, historical, religious and other unique and valued forests of national importance.

(g) Access to biological resources, including genetic material, shall be with due regard to the sovereign rights of the countries where the forests are located and to the sharing on mutually agreed terms of technology and profits from biotechnology products that are derived from these resources.

(h) National policies should ensure that environmental impact assessments should be carried out where actions are likely to have significant adverse impacts on important forest resources, and where such actions are subject to a decision of a competent national authority.

9. (a) The efforts of developing countries to strengthen the management, conservation and sustainable development of their forest resources should be supported by the international community, taking into account the importance of redressing external indebtedness, particularly where aggravated by the net transfer of resources to developed countries, as well as the problem of achieving at least the replacement value of forests through improved market access for forest products, especially processed products. In this respect, special attention should also be given to the countries undergoing the process of transition to market economies.

(b) The problems that hinder efforts to attain the conservation and sustainable use of forest resources and that stem from the lack of alternative options available to local communities, in particular the urban poor and poor rural populations who are economically and socially dependent on forests and forest resources, should be addressed by Governments and the international community.

(c) National policy formulation with respect to all types of forests should take account of the pressures and demands imposed on forest ecosystems and resources from influencing factors outside the forest sector, and intersectoral means of dealing with these pressures and demands should be sought.

10. New and additional financial resources should be provided to developing countries to enable them to sustainably manage, conserve and develop their forest resources, including through afforestation, reforestation and combating deforestation and forest and land degradation.

11. In order to enable, in particular, developing countries to enhance their endogenous capacity and to better manage, conserve and develop their forest resources, the access to and transfer of environmentally sound technologies and corresponding know-how on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed, in accordance with the relevant provisions of Agenda 21, should be promoted, facilitated and financed, as appropriate.

12. (a) Scientific research, forest inventories and assessments carried out by national institutions which take into account, where relevant, biological, physical, social and economic variables, as well as technological development and its application in the field of sustainable forest management, conservation and development, should be strengthened through effective modalities, including international cooperation. In this context, attention should be given to research and development of sustainably harvested non-wood products.

(b) National and, where appropriate, regional and international institutional capabilities in education, training, science, technology, economics, anthropology and social aspects of forests and forest management are essential to the conservation and sustainable development of forests and should be strengthened.

(c) International exchange of information on the results of forest and forest management research and development should be enhanced and broadened, as appropriate, making full use of education and training institutions, including those in the private sector.

(d) Appropriate indigenous capacity and local knowledge regarding the conservation and sustainable development of forests should, through institutional and financial support, and in collaboration with the people in local communities concerned, be recognized, respected, recorded, developed and, as appropriate, introduced in the implementation of programmed Benefits arising from the utilization of indigenous knowledge should therefore be equitably shared with such people.

13. (a) Trade in forest products should be based on non-discriminatory and multilaterally agreed rules and procedures consistent with international trade law and practices. In this context, open and free international trade in forest products should be facilitated.

(b) Reduction or removal of tariff barriers and impediments to the provision of better market access and better prices for higher value-added forest products and their local processing should be encouraged to enable producer countries to better conserve and manage their renewable forest resources.

(c) Incorporation of environmental costs and benefits into market forces and mechanisms, in order to achieve forest conservation and sustainable development, should be encouraged both domestically and internationally.

(d) Forest conservation and sustainable development policies should be integrated with economic, trade and other relevant policies.

(e) Fiscal, trade, industrial, transportation and other policies and practices that may lead to forest degradation should be avoided. Adequate policies, aimed at management, conservation and sustainable development of forests, including where appropriate, incentives, should be encouraged.

14. Unilateral measures, incompatible with international obligations or agreements, to restrict and/or ban international trade in timber or other forest products should be removed or avoided, in order to attain long-term sustainable forest management.

15. Pollutants, particularly air-borne pollutants, including those responsible for acidic deposition, that are harmful to the health of forest ecosystems at the local, national, regional and global levels should be controlled.

Endnotes

50. See: TRAP Operational Principles: Executive Summary. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, November 1991. pp. 4-6.

51. See: ITTO guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests. Op. Cit., pp. 1-10.

52. See: "U.S. Proposal on Forest Principles." U.S. State Department. Washington, DC, May 1991.

53. See: "Adoption of Agreements on Environment and Development: Non-Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests." Op. Cit.