UNFF LOOKS FOR RELEVANCE IN INTERNATIONAL FOREST GOVERNANCE

Delegates meeting in New York from 13-24 February for the sixth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF-6) adopted a set of measures that officials hoped would strengthen the International Arrangement on Forests (IAF) that the UNFF administers and make the IAF more relevant and influential in global forest governance. In the draft resolution forwarded to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), countries agreed to four global objectives for forests, identified three aspects of the IAF to strengthen, and decided to forgo efforts to create a legally binding instrument (LBI) on forests. Notwithstanding the agreement on the resolution, which comes in marked contrast to the failure to adopt any text at UNFF-5 in 2005 (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 29 April 2005), low civil society interest and participation and a lack of enthusiasm amongst delegates themselves led to questions on the impact of the UNFF on international forest governance, and in the longer-term, sustainable forest management and livelihoods on the ground.

UNFF's current role in international forest governance

The UNFF was created by ECOSOC in 1995 (Resolution E/2000/35) to provide a home for talks that had been ongoing for five years within the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) and the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF). IPF-IFF talks themselves had been launched by forest negotiations at the Rio Summit in 1992 where consensus on an international instrument on forests was not forthcoming, in contrast to talks on biodiversity, desertification and climate change. The UNFF was mandated to facilitate the implementation of forest-related agreements and foster a common understanding on sustainable forest management, provide a forum for policy development and dialogue, enhance cooperation and strengthen political commitment. In addition to adopting decisions urging UN Members to take agreed-upon measures and approaches, the UNFF has also headed up the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, which includes 14 major organisations working on forests, has instituted a notification system and has hosted talks on the nature and content of an international instrument on forests. It aims to be the global forum for forest policy, taking a holistic approach to biodiversity, social, developmental, economic, financial, trade and other aspects of forests. While the UNFF mandate from ECOSOC is open-ended, a new programme of action will come into force in 2007 and last until 2015.

Measures adopted to add "teeth" and "meat" to IAF

Four global objectives were agreed upon -- based on proposed "global goals" from UNFF-5 -- on reducing the loss of forest cover; enhancing economic, social and environmental benefits of forests; increasing the area of protected forests; and reversing the decline in official development assistance for sustainable forest management. To make the UNFF and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests -- known together as the IAF -- more effective, UN Members also agreed to instruct the IAF to enhance the contribution of forests to achieve the millennium development goals; encourage and assist countries in developing and implementing forest conservation and rehabilitation strategies; and strengthen activities with regional and sub-regional forest-related mechanisms. Paki Patosaari, UNFF Director, suggested that these measures will, when adopted by ECOSOC in July of this year, "reaffirm" the international community's political drive behind work on forests, and in particular the UNFF's role in international policy-making on the issue.

However, several civil society groups active on forestry issues have questioned the relevance and impact that UNFF processes have on the ground in forest conservation and sustainable use. This was reflected at the meeting by the low participation of civil society and other 'major groups' (shorthand for indigenous, youth and other groups that are represented at UNFF) in the talks. Describing it as a "talk shop", they have questioned the power that the UNFF has to actually implement the policy decisions it urges countries to take. Instead, many civil society groups -- and particularly European-based ones -- have focused on regional and national efforts, including the forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) processes in Europe and elsewhere (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 25 November 2005). This shift has also been recognised by the UNFF through the adoption of a decision to strengthen interaction between the UNFF and relevant regional and sub-regional forest-related mechanisms, institutions, instruments, organisations and processes, along with its commitment to "strengthen the capacity of countries to address illegal practices according to national legislation and illegal international trade in forest products in the forest sector, through the promotion of FLEGT at the national, sub-national, regional and sub-regional levels."

Some NGOs and a number of countries have, in the corridors, suggested that the UNFF's work should be moved to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and operationalised by a Protocol on Forests, given that the CBD has a strong biodiversity focus arising from the fact that officials negotiating it are largely from environment ministries (as opposed to the forestry officials that attend UNFF talks or trade officials that attend International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) talks). The next opportunity for an initiative to increase CBD activity on forests will arise at the 9th Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP-9) in 2008, at which time a significant review of the implementation of a programme of work on forest biodiversity initiated at the COP-6 in 2002 will be undertaken and further work planned. The move to shift jurisdiction toward the CBD was, however, previously resisted by countries, such as Canada that formerly suggested that the UNFF could deliver substantial gains through the adoption of a legally binding instrument on all types of forests.

Parties decide to opt for non-legally binding option

In an effort to avoid the deadlocked debates that have stymied UNFF talks on an international instrument on forests in the past, and building on informal discussions at a Berlin meeting on the subject (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 25 November 2005), the UNFF decided to give up on the creation of a legally binding instrument (LBI) on forests, and instead resolve to make a non-LBI within a UNFF-led process. Although the last UNFF meeting, held in May 2005, contemplated the possibility of the creation of a LBI based upon EU and Canadian demands, at the meeting the EU decided to compromise and accept a non-LBI for the time being. As a result of the decision to not negotiate an LBI in the UNFF, Canada, Argentina, Chile and others have suggested that they will pursue the creation of a global LBI on forests elsewhere -- which could mean in the CBD or in regional forums -- given the urgent need for conservation of the world's forests and promotion of livelihoods, development and other aspects of the issue.

Draft texts with options from the EU, Brazil, Australia and others will be used as a starting point for the negotiations of a voluntary agreement, which will begin shortly after the ECOSOC meeting. The UNFF Secretariat will circulate a compilation of the draft indicative elements by 30 June, and an open-ended ad-hoc working group will be held shortly thereafter "to consider the content of the non-legally binding instrument", which will feed into the next UNFF meeting in April 2007. Although a number of countries wanted to review the possibility of changing the instrument into a binding one before the end of the decade, the final resolution says that a review of the IAF, including the non-LBI, will take place in 2015 and will consider a LBI as an option.

Delegates also noted that the UNFF should give input to the 2012-2013 Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) focus on forests. In the same year, possible incorporation of avoided deforestation as a measure subject to compensation under the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could come into effect, leading one source to suggest that the UNFCCC could one day become the de facto LBI. However, the use of avoided deforestation has proven contentious amongst UNFCCC Parties, and comments on a proposal on the issue tabled at the December 2005 COP will be taken up at a meeting of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) on 18-26 May 2006 in Bonn, Germany.

Additional Resources

Daily reporting on the meeting was provided by IISD Linkages.

ICTSD Reporting; ENB Vo. 13 No. 144, 27 February 2006.