Briefing Updates

The third session of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF-3) will open in Geneva on Monday, 3 May. At IFF-3, delegates will engage in substantive discussions and prepare draft conclusions and proposals for action on monitoring progress in implementation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests' (IPF) proposals for action, matters left pending from the IPF process on the need for financial resources, issues arising from the IPF process needing further clarification, and international arrangements and mechanisms to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. Delegates will also receive information and updates on promoting and facilitating implementation, transfer of environmentally sound technologies (ESTs), trade and environment, and forest-related work of international and regional organizations.

Forests are increasingly perceived as complex entities, not only from a bio-physical perspective, but also from social, economic, environmental and political perspectives.

At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, forests were among the most controversial issues being considered. The prevailing North-South polarization concerning forests did not permit agreements beyond the text of the -Non-legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests, the so-called "Forest Principles", and Chapter 11 of Agenda 21 "Combatting Deforestation." By contrast, the "Post-Rio" period 1992-1995 was one of confidence building and emerging North-South partnerships, enabling the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), at its third session in April 1995, to establish the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF), to continue the intergovernmental forest policy dialogue.