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MINISTERIAL CONSULTATIONS

FORESTS: The Forest Principles document was finalized Friday morning at 3:00 am and was scheduled to be sent to the Plenary Friday night at 11:00 pm. In a open-ended ministerial level meeting that began Thursday night at 10:00 pm, 18 countries, represented by no less than 11 ministers, finally agreed after modifications to an eight-paragraph package proposed by Klaus T”pfer, the German Federal Minister for the Environment. This agreement includes the following points (italicized text reflects new language):

Paragraph (a) of the preamble was modified to read as follows: "The subject of forests is related to the entire range of environmental and development issues and opportunities including the right to socio-economic development on a sustainable basis."

Paragraph (d) of the preamble that dealt with a possible future legal instrument for forests was replaced with language that commits the governments to a prompt implementation of the principles and that they decide to keep them "under assessment for their adequacy with regard to further international cooperation on forest issues."

In paragraph (f) of the preamble, the phrase "are of value to the global environment" was replaced by "and are of value to local communities and to the environment as a whole."

Preamble paragraph (g) was replaced with the sentence, "Forests are essential to economic development and the maintenance of all forms of life." This replaces a complicated set of competing formulations including some phrases surrounded by three sets of brackets.

Paragraph 17 (carbon sinks) was deleted and elements placed into paragraph 2(b) that deals with the needs and uses of forests. The terms "photosynthesis" and "carbon fixation" were replaced with "carbon sinks and reservoirs".

Paragraph 8(d) was re-written to read "Sustainable forest management and use should be carried out in accordance with national development policies and priorities and on the basis of environmentally sound national guidelines. In the formulation of such guidelines, account should be taken, as appropriate and if applicable, of relevant agreed methodologies and criteria."

Paragraph 8(g), that addresses the sharing of biotechnology (from the North) in exchange for access to biodiversity (from the South), was reformulated to allow access to biological resources in trade for the sharing of technology and profits from biotechnology "on mutually agreed terms."

Paragraph 8(h), dealing with environmental impact statements was amended to read "and where such actions are subject to a decision of a competent national authority."

Paragraph 12 (transfer of technology) was adopted, as suggested in T”pfer's "package", to include the phrase, "access to and transfer of environmentally sound technologies and corresponding know-how on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed, in accordance with the relevant provisions of Agenda 21, should be promoted, facilitated and financed, as appropriate."

The "trade policies" paragraph was amended with the phrase, "adequate policies, aimed at management, conservation and sustainable development of forests, including where appropriate incentives, should be encouraged."

Paragraph 15(b), which dealt with international trade in sustainably managed forest resources, was deleted.

The only other outstanding issue was paragraph 11.14(e) from the Agenda 21 chapter on combatting deforestation that addresses the principles and the possibility of future international agreements on forests. This was amended to read as follows: governments would "consider the need for and the feasibility of all kinds of appropriate internationally agreed arrangements to promote international cooperation on forest management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests including afforestation, reforestation, and rehabilitation."

FINANCIAL RESOURCES: Final negotiations on financial resources appeared to be drawing to a successful close as of late Friday afternoon. In his progress report to the General Committee (members of the Bureaus of both the Plenary and the Main Committee) at noon Friday, Amb. Rubens Ric£pero announced that consensus had been reached on several paragraphs:

In paragraph 10, the sentence that deals with the provision of new and additional resources, and includes the word "including", was broken into two parts. The first sentence now only deals with the fact that the implementation of Agenda 21 requires new and additional resources. The second sentence now deals with the terms on which these resources will be provided.

In paragraph 16(a)(iii), on the GEF, the problem pertained to the word "conditionality." The compromise now reads, "Ensure access to and disbursement of the funds under mutually agreed criteria without introducing new forms of conditionality."

Jan Pronk, Minister of Development Cooperation from the Netherlands, has been assigned responsibility for conducting bilateral consultations on paragraph 15, which deals with targets and timetables for ODA. As of late Friday afternoon, consultations were still underway.

As of Friday afternoon, Ambassador Ric£pero was still holding consultations on paragraph 16(a)(i), that deals with IDA and the "Earth Increment". The present round of IDA replenishment, IDA-10, is underway and will conclude in December 1992. Current textual options call for IDA-10 to be maintained at IDA-9 levels, corrected in real terms, plus an increase of approximately US$5 billion in the form of the Earth Increment. Some governments are concerned that if UNCED commits to levels for the IDA-10 replenishment it will limit or foreclose options within the ongoing negotiations in other fora. Others believe that it is unrealistic to set funding levels before reviewing the projects that IDA-10 would fund. Delegates within the negotiations believed that compromise language would be found before the 11:00 pm deadline.

Finally, paragraph 16(e), which deals with debt relief, is now under review. Particularly problematic, for some developed countries, is the phrase "further measures and eligible countries should be kept under review." Some countries feel that this might expand the list of countries available for special debt relief consideration beyond the list of the poorest heavily indebted countries under an expanded definition of the Trinidad agreement of December 1991. By late Friday afternoon, text was being circulated privately among governments. This text was reported to replace this phrase with: "debt problems of the poorest and low and middle income countries will be kept under review." Negotiators were confident that this would be resolved in time for the 11:00 pm Plenary.

ATMOSPHERE: Informal consultations continued at the ministerial level to resolve the one outstanding issue in the Atmosphere chapter, the phrase "safe and" wherever the reference to energy systems occurs in the chapter. The Saudis continue to press for the retention of the phrase, despite the opposition of many countries who maintain that the phrase connotes an anti-nuclear bias. In an effort to broker compromise, Amb. Bo Kjell‚n, chair of the Atmosphere contact group that met over the last two weeks, presented a generic solution whereby the reference to "safe and" would be deleted from the chapter and a reference would be inserted in the chapeau to Agenda 21 to state that wherever technology is referred to in the document, it should be assumed that such reference implies environmentally safe and sound technology. Besides the Chair's proposal, the only other viable solution would be to delete, against the Saudis' will, the reference to "safe and". However, in so doing, the Saudis would retain the right to make formal reservations to the section. In yesterday's ministerial consultations, it appeared that the Saudis would not accept the so-called "chapeau" solution, thus presenting the group with the latter option. By 6:00 pm it appeared that this issue would have to be resolved in Plenary.

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