more help for forest management

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Sunday, March 24, 2002 - The Star

More help for forest management

By JOHAN FERNANDEZ

NEW YORK: The next World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in

Johannesburg, South Africa, in late August/early September is expected to

hear calls for political will and money to tackle the problem of sustainable

forest management.

The summit is expected to see action-oriented initiatives that will promote

economic growth, social development and environmental protection.

Last week, at the end of the second session of the United Nations Forum on

Forest, ministers from developed and developing countries agreed that

forestry issues “must be considered priority” as they called for an

“enhanced” political commitment to promote sustainable forest management.

They emphasised the importance of financing to achieve progress in

sustainable forest management, as well as partnerships to help transfer

environmentally sound technologies to help countries manage their forests.

Although forests cover roughly a third of the earth’s land surface, world

forests are continuing to decline, especially in the tropics.

“We’ve discussed forest issues for over a decade now and we know what needs

to be done,” said Nithin Desai, secretary-general of the Johannesburg

Sum-mit.

“What we need now are actions and initiatives that can help meet the needs

of people who live in or around the forests while protecting and preserving

our forest ecosystems. The strong message that the ministers at the Forest

Forum are sending to the Summit indicates that it is urgent that

international community and national governments show even greater resolve

to move the forest agenda forward so that we can get results,” said Nithin,

who is also under-secretary-general of the Department of Economic and Social

Affairs (Desa).

Malaysia has always spoken for greater commitment among developed nations,

which have always called for sustainable forest management, to be backed by

financial commitment.

Deputy Primary Industries Minister Datuk Anifah Aman, who headed Malaysia’s

delegation, told the forum that developed countries had failed to keep the

pledge they made at the Earth Summit on Environment and Development in Rio,

Brazil, 10 years ago, to provide funds to developing countries for

sustainable forest management.

Anifah said “very little money” had been forthcoming and even Official

Development Assistance (ODA) was shrinking. Despite this, developed

countries were still demanding that developing countries implement

sustainable forest management with threats of trade sanctions, boycotts and

bans on timber derived from so-called “unsustainably” managed forests.

While forests were declining across the globe, Malaysia has seen an increase

in its permanent forest reserve from 12.74 million hectares in 1990 to 14.40

million hectares in 2000, an increase of 1.71 million hectares, or 13.4%.

With the existing forest area outside the permanent forest reserve of 5.75

million hectares and 4.8 million hectares of perennial agricultural crops,

the total area under tree cover now stood at 25 million hectares, or 76.9%

of its total land area.

Anifah said there are now more efforts to make environ-mental protection the

overriding consideration in forest management.

“While this is laudable, it must be borne in mind that overemphasis on

environmental considerations without sufficient regard for development will

restrict avenues for developing countries to generate revenue for

reinvestment into forests.

“Imposing environmental standards of developed countries on developing

countries will also make sustainable forest management even more difficult

and costly to attain, particularly for countries without the resources or

technology to implement many such standards.”

Malaysia is also concerned about the link that is being made between trade

and environment policies, as it may be used to justify protectionism and

impede market access of goods from the developing countries, Anifah said.

“The promotion of sustainable development in developing countries cannot be

put at risk through the unilateral, discriminatory and questionable measures

on environment and social grounds,” he said.

Certain markets in developed countries imposed timber certification as a

condition for market access, particularly for tropical timber. Certification

is supposed to be voluntary but it has become a pre-requisite in some

markets.

Malaysia’s stand is that timber certification should not be used as a

non-tariff barrier as it is against the principle of free trade. The

imposition of such a condition will increase the cost of production to

developing countries, which unfortunately do not get much of a premium in

return, and in some cases no premium at all, for their certified timber.

This whole exercise is further complicated by the proliferation of

certification schemes, which further complicates the certification exercise.

Anifah said tropical timber countries like Malaysia continue to face

unending allegations, attacks and misinterpretations by parties which served

no cause but their own.

He also urged forum participants to co-operate to wrest back the initiative

from parties who almost at will promote misinformation and misconception

about forests, in particular tropical forests, which have deterred consumers

from using tropical timber and timber products

“We agree that producing countries should implement sustainable forest

management. However, consumer countries too have a responsibility to provide

market access to the forest products from developing countries.

“Crying foul over some areas of abuse and generalising that deforestation

can best be combated through such unilateral actions reflect the lack of

understanding of the larger and more fundamental issues of poverty,

indebtedness and unemployment which drive people to the forest for a

livelihood,” he said.

Urging the international community to take all the necessary steps to ensure

that commitments made at Rio be honoured, Anifah said: “We strongly believe

that it is imperative for the international community to carry out its

shared responsibility with greater vigour at a time of increasingly scarce

resources.

“We believe that the cardinal principles of multi-lateralism is the notion

that the fortunate help the less fortunate.”

All eyes will be on the Johannesburg Summit to see whether the gathering

will do more than just talk.

 

 

 

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