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 Day
1: Monday, 4 March
Monday, 4 March: The second substantive session of the United
Nations Forum on Forests opened today in the General Assembly
Hall. During its morning session, Plenary heard opening statements
from representatives of UN bodies and countries. In the afternoon
the UNFF met in a working group to discuss the draft terms of
reference of the ad hoc working groups.
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| Opening
Plenary |
Nitin
Desai, Under-Secretary General of Economic and Social Affairs,
announced the election of Knut Øistad (Norway) as
Chair of UNFF-2. In his opening statement, Chair Øistad
reminded delegates of the High-Level Ministerial segment
which is to take place on 13-14 March, and highlighted cooperation
with the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) acting
as the Prepatory Committee for the WSSD.
 Listen
to Øistad's opening statment |
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<
Ivan imonovic, ECOSOC President, called for synergy between
UNFF and the other functional commissions of ECOSOC, such
as the CSD. He stated that the Forum and ECOSOC do not work
in isolation, but benefit from each other's efforts and
mutually reinforce the policies, actions and strategies
developed in their respective areas of responsibility.
Listen
to imonovic's statement |
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<
Jag Maini, Head of the UNFF Secretariat, discussed preparations
for the ministerial segment, and highlighted several topics
to be covered during the high-level debate: positioning
forests on the international political agenda; finance;
and cross-sectoral policy harmonization.
Listen
to Maini's statement
Maini
later discussed the organization of work at UNFF-2 |
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Maini
and Øistad. |
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<
Spain, on behalf of the EU, called for placing illegal logging
on the international political agenda, and highlighted the
various ways in which EU members were implementing the IPF
and IFF proposals for action.
Listen
to EU's statement |
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<
Canada called for focus on implementation, rather than the
development of more proposals for action.
Listen
to Canada's statement |
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| Indonesia
stressed the importance of trade and highlighted financial
constraints to implementation of national forest programmes
in developing countries. |
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Noting the long-term and cross-cutting nature of forest
issues in his opening address, Desai stated that forestry
is a capstone of our capacity to conceptualize, operationalize
and implement the basic principles of sustainable development
as articulated in Agenda 21. He expressed thanks to Jag
Maini, Head of the UNFF Secretariat, for his years of dedicated
service to the cause of international forest policy. |
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Listen
to Desai's statement |
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<
Hosni El-Lakany, Chair of the Collaborative Partnership
on Forests (CPF), stated that the main challenges for the
CPF partners lie in prioritizing activities within allocated
resources, intervening strategically and producing concrete
results.
Listen
to El-Lakany's statement |
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View from the back of the GA Hall. |
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Venezuela, on behalf of the G-77/China, highlighted, inter
alia, the importance of considering income generation
and market access when formulating international forest
policy.
Listen
to G-77/China's statement
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Brazil emphasized the importance of the ad hoc expert
group on finance and transfer of environmentally sound technologies
for implementing sustainable forest management.
Listen
to Brazil's statement |
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| Japan
noted that good governance and law enforcement are fundamental
for SFM, and urged the international community to address
illegal logging. |
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| Nauru,
for the Pacific Islands Forum Group,
noted that the Pacific Islands have insufficient resources
and capacity to meet all their UNFF commitments, and urged
that consideration be given to their special vulnerability
when developing criteria for develpment assistance. |
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In
the afternoon, Patricia Chaves (Costa Rica, left)
chaired the Working Group discussion on the draft terms
of reference of the UNFF ad hoc expert groups. She
is pictured here with Mia Soderlund of the UNFF Secretariat.
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