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INTERGOVERNMENTAL WORKING GROUP ON FORESTS (IWGF) REPORT

Options

1. An appropriate body or bodies within the UN system or other multilateral organizations, with the participation of other stakeholders, could examine trade and other measures that affect countries' abilities to attain the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.

2. The incorporation of the full costs of the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests into market mechanisms and prices may facilitate making trade and environmental policies mutually reinforcing and thus support more effectively the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. Such incorporation of costs has been the subject of research by a range of private, governmental, and international organizations. The CSD could encourage additional practical research in this area by an appropriate body or bodies within the UN system or other multilateral organizations.

3. An appropriate body or bodies within the UN system or other multilateral organizations could undertake the examination of policies related to subsidies, taxes, tariffs, and related mechanisms in the forest and forest-related sectors, with a view to avoiding discrimination and in order to help ensure that countries' abilities to attain the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests is not impaired.

4. An appropriate international body could examine, with the participation of governments, NGOs and the private forestry industry sector, issues related to the potential harmonization and the use of certification programs as means of promoting the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. In this context, the timing, cost-effectiveness, market, social, environmental and economic impacts of various certification approaches should also be considered, having due regard to the different circumstances of countries, forest types and management practices.

5. An appropriate body or bodies within the UN system or other multilateral organizations could examine the issue of illegal trade in forest products, plant and animal species and genetic resources, with a view to suggesting means for combatting such trade.