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FORESTS

In the discussion on forests, delegates considered whether or not to retain a quote from the Report of the Second Extraordinary Session of the CGRFA that "agreed that forestry would not be included in the GPA to be discussed at Leipzig." Delegates also considered subsequent text that suggested that the GPA, in the future, could include "other sub-sets" of PGR. On request, the Secretariat clarified that "other sub-sets of PGR" referred to forests.

AUSTRALIA, supported by FRANCE, BRAZIL and NIGERIA, reiterated that the placing and wording of the sentence represented a delicate balance between those who wanted no reference to forests in the GPA, and those who did. NIGERIA explained that in regions of Africa, PGRFA were either found in or closely linked to forests, hence national programmes in this area could not be formulated in complete isolation from forests. Subsequently, COLOMBIA withdrew its objections to the reference to "other sub-sets of PGR". In the final Plenary, ARGENTINA, later supported by PERU, accepted the final version of the GPA, but recorded her country's reservation on the language referring to "other sub-sets of PGR, as its meaning was unclear.