From Rio to Johannesburg:
Much Talk, Too Little Action on Forests
16, 2002 - At
the Earth Summit in Rio, forests were a major focus, and point
of contention, as they have been in the years since. But
despite the official attention and rhetorical commitment to
forests, the last decade was marked largely by government
inaction and declining forests. During the next decade, governments
must take a decidedly more active course in order to sustain
the world's remaining forests.
In Rio, governments were unable to agree on a forest convention,
which was to have been the third jewel in the Summit crown
(with climate and biodiversity). Instead, they negotiated
a set of non-legally binding forest principles and a chapter
on Combating deforestation within Agenda 21 (the
official post-Summit agenda).
Since Rio, governments have continued talking and debating,
but have done little else. In 1995, the UN reviewed progress
on forests since Rio and set up the ad-hoc Intergovernmental
Panel on Forests, which in turn spawned the ad-hoc Intergovernmental
Forum on Forests, which in turn begat the permanent UN Forum
on Forests in 2001. But the principles and proposals generated
at these talk shops were broad and without concrete goals,
targets, or timetables, nor were they legally binding. Not
surprisingly, few governments have felt compelled to act.
How well have governments done in Combating Deforestation?
Agenda 21 called on nations to maintain existing forests
and sustain and expand areas under forest and tree cover.
Unfortunately, the high levels of natural forest loss during
the 1980s over 16 million hectares per yearcontinued
unabated during the 1990s, according to the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization. (The area lost during the last 20 years is larger
than the size of India.)
Evidence from independent monitors reveals that actual forest
loss has been much higher than official estimates, and that
rampant illegal logging and trade are speeding up the pace
of destruction. The massive scale of these activities is
coming to light. In Indonesia, about two-thirds of all wood
is harvested illegally and the government loses at least $600
million a year as a result; and in Brazil the government estimates
80 percent of logging is illegal. High levels have been reported
in Russia, Africa, and elsewhere.
The most productive developments for forests in the last
10 years, and those that hold the most promise for the future,
have taken place largely outside official processes.
Concerned citizen groups and governments have been forming
new partnerships that are bearing fruit in improved forest
monitoring, management, and law enforcement. The Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC), made up of industry and NGOs, has significantly
accelerated the evolution of sustainable forest management.
The FSC certification process has empowered consumers to demand
better forest management through the marketplace, and rewarded
sustainable operations for their efforts. Consumer boycotts
in Europe of Canadian timber forced the government of British
Columbia to reform their forest management practices.
The work of non-governmental monitoring and activist groups
has forced governments to acknowledge the existence of illegal
logging and trade and take actions to combat them. Brazil
banned the harvest and export of mahogany. Several European
nations and the U.S. have impounded imports of Brazilian mahogany.
Another sign of progress is the commitments made by in the
Ministerial Declaration of the Forest Law Enforcement and
Governance Conference in Bali in September 2001.
Governments at the World Summit should commit to action,
not talk. The world's forests and peoples cannot afford another
decade of delay. Governments do not have to wait for consensus
to act to sustain forests, nor do they need a new global forest
convention. (Indeed, pursuing a new convention would actually
slow real progress by diverting scarce resources and delaying
actions. A new convention would take 10 years or more to negotiate
and come into force, and would likely appeal to the lowest
To achieve tangible progress in combating deforestation,
governments should commit to work in partnership with civil
- Eliminate illegal logging and trade
Governments must step up the enforcement of domestic and
international laws against illegal logging and trade. Corruption
and illegal activity destroys forests, and bankrupts treasuries,
funds criminal activities, and undermines the rule of law.
The billions of dollars now lost to national treasuries
could instead be used for productive purposes such as erasing
debt and eliminating the need to swallow further onerous
economic adjustment programs. In addition, unless illegal
and corrupt logging and trade are brought under control,
it will be difficult for law abiding forest industries to
compete, and virtually impossible for sustainable forest
management to become standard practice. A World Summit initiative
on illegal logging and trade would be welcome, if
it enhances, rather than supercedes, programs that are already
- Reduce unsustainable levels of consumption
Seventy-seven percent of the world's commercial timber harvest
is consumed by the 22 percent of the world's people that
live in North America, Europe, and Japan. China is now the
world's 2nd largest consumer (including large
quantities of illegally harvested timber). Nations can
reduce overall demand through such measures as increasing
reuse, recovery and recycling, improving materials use efficiency,
and eliminating wasteful consumption.
- Improve and accelerate forest monitoring
Forest monitoring by governments is woefully inadequate.
Currently 75 percent of developing countries have either
never carried out a forest inventory or have done only one.
Even many industrial countries have questionable data on
forest area, and little data on forest health and quality.
Independent groups have had much success in monitoring forest
conditions, assessing the veracity of official data, tracking
illegal forest destruction, and providing reliable data.
Governments and donors should build on these non-governmental
successes and commit to ensuring rigorous and repeated assessments
of forest cover and quality using field and satellite measurements
in every nation in the next five years. These data must
be publicly available.
- Adopt better forest management strategies including:
Ending the practice of cutting natural forest to establish
plantations. About half of all plantations established
worldwide in the 1990s came at the expense of natural forests,
according to UNFAO. For plantations to fill the role of
reducing pressure on primary or old growth forests (as called
for in Agenda 21) they must be established on degraded
and unoccupied land rather than natural forest.
Restoring forested landscapes to provide the full array
of goods and services (such as forest products, watershed
protection and carbon sequestration) to local and global
Increasing the area of forest certified to FSC standards,
and expanding the area certified in developing nations.
Currently 80 percent of the FSC-certified acreage is in
Europe and the U.S.
- Uphold the rights of forest dependent peoples.
At least 500 million of the world's poorest people depend
directly on forests, according to the Center for International
Forestry Research. Governments should stop expropriating
and exploiting forests in the name of poverty reduction
and national development in ways that impoverish forest
dependent people. All too often, governments prohibit small
scale and local use while subsidizing the destruction of
vast tracts of forest by commercial interests. Such policies
run counter to the oft-stated goals of sustainable forestry
management and the alleviation of poverty.
NOTE: Janet Abramovitz will be appearing on a live chat
on the Worldwatch website on Friday, April 19 from 12:00-1:00
EST (17:00-18:00 GMT). To join in, go to http://www.worldwatch.org/live.