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Side
event: Briefing on the GEF Forest Roundtable
On Monday, 11 March,
the Global Environment Fund sponsored a high-level roundtable on forests
to explore key contemporary and emerging issues that could improve conservation
efforts and the sustainable use of forests. Specific topics included
timber certification, threats from invasive species, ecosystem services
and the role of forests as carbon sinks.
Andy White, Director
of Policy and Market Research at Forest Trends, began the side-event
summarizing the roundtable's main discussion paper, "To Johannesburg
and Beyond: Strategic Options to Advance the Conservation of Natural
Forests" (document available on this
GEF web page). On lessons learned since Rio, the paper noted
the limited effect of global agreements on the conservation of forests,
and said there was widespread disenfranchisement and weariness of global
processes. He stated that conservation has not been a priority, in either
the North, or the South. On the difficulty to increase commitment, he
said that: in many cases governments' authority exceeds its capacity,
both in terms of resources and regulatory reach; that sustainable forestry
is more expensive than the alternatives; and that financing for public
goods has not materialized. On what has changed since Rio, White highlighted
the spread of invasive species and climate change as emerging issues
requiring a multi-sectoral approach. He noted increased community control
of forests, and that the local level is now a major player that needs
to be engaged. He said that plantations could ease pressure on natural
forests, but can also decrease their value. He noted the emergence of
globalization, increased demand for environmental services, governance
and certification as emerging issues in today's global forest policy
debate. Looking towards the future, the discussion paper highlighted
government policy and the private sector as being far more important
players than ODA and philanthropy could ever be, and discussed the need
for ODA to focus on leveraging private capital flows and transforming
it into an agent for conservation. White went on to discuss various
ways in which ODA might achieve this, for example by addressing governance
issues, reforming policies to provide incentives for SFM, promote community
enterprise and joint ventures, and establish international payment mechanisms
for environmental services. In conclusion, he said that strategies must
become more integrated as the social, environmental and economic agendas
converge.
 Listen
to White's summation of the discussion paper
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Jeff Sayer, Senior
Associate at WWF and Chair of the roundtable, noted the 18 panelists
and over 25 representatives from NGOs and delegations who took part
in the all-day discussions. He presented the Chair's summary of the
discussion.
He noted, inter alia:
- increased awareness of the demand for social services, how to pay
for these and synergies of problems, and the decrease in emphasis on
the importance of shifting agriculture and industrial logging.
- governance's major implications for forest and the risks of devolution
of authority to communities.
- the digital divide with regards to access to information
- increased understanding of how to manage forests in an integrated
development setting, and the underlying causes of deforestation
- the futility of too much integration of environmental topics at the
international level, and the need for more such integration at the national
and sub-national levels.
- an increase in interest in macro-level, multi-functional integrated
approaches to resource management
- the pessimistic consensus on the outlook for the next 10 years of
forest conservation, due to the feeling that underlying causes had not
been addressed
- the prevailing opinion that balanced economic development in the South
was required to make the required condition for forest conservation
possible.
He proceeded to outline several reasons for optimism, such as new institutional
arrangements and approaches, knowledge generation and innovative funding
mechanismsEnsuing discussion focused on: the need to reconsider the
eligibility requirements for GEF funding, the mechanisms by which plantations
can and cannot decrease the value of natural forests, how ODA can leverage
private funding, how to integrate concerns of human rights and empowerment
with the increased involvement of the private sector, the failure of
self-regulation in the forestry industry, and the importance of developing
market mechanisms for payments for global services.
Listen
to the Chair's summary of the roundtable discussion
For more informtaion:
http://www.forest-trends.org/
http://www.gefweb.org/Documents/Forest_Roundtable/forest_roundtable.html
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