New UN Resolution on forests, but no decision on financing

At the 8th United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF-8) in New York more than 600 representatives of member states and interest groups discussed two main themes, “forests in a changing environment” and “means of implementation for sustainable forest management”. The result is a resolution on forests in a changing environment, while no decision was made on the financing of sustainable forest management. The participants “froze” the text and the discussion will continue at the next UNFF in January 2011.

After two-week marathon negotiations the 8th United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF-8) produced a resolution on forests in a changing environment which emphasises better cooperation and coordination of the cross-sectional policies and programmes as well as cooperation between different regions. However, no decision was made on the financing of sustainable forest management. The participants “froze” the text and decided to continue the discussion at the next UNFF in January 2011. During the meeting a “multi-stakeholder dialogue” also took place and a panel discussion was held on the issue of the financial and economic crisis and its impact on forestry.

The new resolution is generally directed at instruments to strengthen sustainable forest management, particularly in relation to the issue of “forests in a changing environment”, strengthening cooperation, coordination and information exchange between processes, platforms and agreements which at least partly concern forests and forestry. It also supports cooperation between individual developing countries and between developing and developed countries and promotes national forest inventories in order to procure comparable information about forests.

One of the important components of the resolution is the “message” of the forestry sector for organisations associated in the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), and particularly for the three “Rio Conventions” (CBD – the Convention on Biological Diversity, UNFCCC – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and UNCCD - the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification).

The message highlights the role of sustainable forest management that understands forests in the full scope of their functions and benefits and does not focus unilaterally only on, for instance, the fight against climate change, deforestation or support of biodiversity. It also identifies concrete instruments appropriate for sustainable forest management in developing countries, e.g. national forestry programmes, that are already in existence.

In their views on the topic of “Means of Implementation” that focused particularly on financing issues, the participating countries basically divided into two groups in the first week. G77 and China were of the opinion that it is necessary to create a global fund on a voluntary basis from which the developing countries could draw funds for implementation of sustainable forest management. On the other hand, the EU, JUSCANZ (Japan, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), Switzerland and several other countries supported initiation of the facilitation process that would facilitate access to current financial sources, improve awareness of financing options, help develop national forestry programmes and create an environment allowing private sector investments. This second group disagreed with the creation of the global fund and none of the countries in this group had the political mandate to negotiate an agreement on the creation of such a fund.

After marathon negotiations the last compromise proposal was submitted by the chair in the morning of 2 May. Most of the participating parties agreed with this compromise text, only the USA had to consult this text with Washington and thereafter refused it, whereby the Forum ended without reaching any agreement on financing.