To our Chairmen, Tan Sri Othman, Dr. Maini, Heads of Delegations, representatives of inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning and welcome to canada.
Most of you have travelled long distances to be here. As head of the Canadian delegation, I want to express the appreciation of the Government of Canada in having you here at the second meeting of the Inter- governmental Working Group on Forests.
Many of you were with us in Kuala Lumpur. Many here are new participants in the process. I am delighted that the Inter-Governmental Working Group on Forests has expanded and am certain that the perspectives that you all bring to bear on our work this week will enrich and improve the final result.
I would particularly like to acknowledge and thank Tan Sri Othman and his Malaysian colleagues, and say what a pleasure it has been to be so closely associated with them.
Canada and Malaysia have forged a strong partnership in co-sponsoring this process. It is our hope that this meeting will build and complement the first meeting of the IWGF that Malaysia so successfully hosted in Kuala Lumpur last April.
As I look around this room, and in greeting old friends and new at the reception last night and before we began this morning, I see government delegations, international institutions and non-governmental organizations who are united in their common interests and concerns in meeting the commitments of Rio for sustainable forest management as one of the key elements of sustainable development.
Canada is committed to the conservation, management and sustainable development of our forests. This meeting is among the most important of our initiatives in this area.
Canada possesses some 10% of the world's forests and is responsible for upwards of 20% of world trade in forest products.
I believe that the extent of our forest resources and our reliance on them gives us a particular responsibility to take steps both nationally and internationally to protect the many roles that forests play: environmental, economic, social, cultural and industrial.
We feel the pressure domestically as well as internationally to be more accountable for the products we produce from our forests and for the long-term health of our forests.
We are responding to this pressure in a number of different ways. For example, our national forest strategy, our annual report to parliament, the domestic and international model forest programmes and our work at home and with other countries in developing criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.
You will all have heard some of the recent developments on forests in my home province of British Columbia in western Canada. I want to give you some specific examples of some of the interesting and extraordinary initiatives that are being undertaken there. These include the Committee on Resources and Environment, which is trying to establish acceptable land designations, the establishment of a comprehensive Forest Practices Code for the better control of logging operations, and the Forests Renewal Initiative. All of these provincial government initiatives involve the public, the industry, NGOs and the elected legislature. Extensive areas of forests have been set aside as protected areas in recent years, including: the South Moresby Archipelago Park Reserve, the huge Tatshenshini wilderness area in Northwest British Columbia, the T Sloo Park in central British Columbia, the Kutzamateen Grizzly Bear forest reserve, the very large Kitlope forest, and others are examples, against any standard in the world, of good initiatives and demonstrate Canada s efforts to meet its obligations to establish and maintain sustainable development.
I think it would be useful for me to give you a sense of how we see the Inter-governmental Working Group on Forests. To us, it is characterized by the following:
1. Its existence starts with a partnership between a developing and a developed country, Malaysia and Canada;
2. Its task is practical and constructive: to identify where and how we can work together;
3. Its process is open and its agenda comprehensive, including a range of forest related issues aimed to meet basic human needs, particularly in areas with limited forest cover, as well as the conservation, management and sustainable development of all types of forests world-wide; and
4. Its ultimate aim is to contribute to the work of the central international institution for advancing sustainable development, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development at its upcoming session scheduled for April 1995.
These are important ingredients for success in what we started last April in Kuala Lumpur and what we are trying to achieve this week.
We have set ourselves an ambitious task.
If we succeed, we will have formulated by Friday noon a set of opportunities and options for action that we can submit to the Commission on Sustainable Development for its consideration and hopefully adoption.
Towards this goal, I would like to suggest that we focus our energies not on where we differ, although we know these will arise, but on where we can agree, and on concrete, action oriented conclusions rather than broad policy statements. If possible, we should also identify organizations that should undertake follow-up actions.
Our best guarantee of progress towards achieving our common goals are open minds, cooperation and good will.
In closing, I want to assure you of Canada's commitment to the success of this meeting, as host and participant.