Global Forests Depends on Local Motivation and Support

Global Forests Depends on Local Motivation and Support

January 2008  - The motivation of local 
people to safeguard their own forest resources is central to a new global 
forest protection ageement reached by the UN General Assembly last week. 
Fifteen years after global discussions began on how to protect the world's 
forests, the General Assembly has adopted a new international forest 
agreement that is human-centered in its orientation. While it recognizes 
the role of forests in conservation of biodiversity and other 
environmental services, the agreement puts a strong emphasis on people and 
communities that depend on forests for their income and livelihoods. 
"This is a paradigm shift," said Pekka Patosaari, director of the UN Forum 
on Forests Secretariat. 
It means that through the concept of sustainable forest management 
"policymakers can better judge the value of their forests, in a way that 
ensures long-term health and sustainability of this important natural 
resource," he said. 
Speaking at a special event held by the UN General Assembly on December 17 
to adopt the agreement, Patosaari said, "Almost all recent success stories 
of restoring the world's forests are, in one way or another, based on 
better recognition of the needs and actions of local peoples, their 
ownership and access rights and ancient knowledge of indigenous tribes and 
communities." 

"Today, forests are disappearing, not only because of a lack of knowledge 
on how to manage and conserve them, but also because we have not been able 
to establish national or international regimes or support mechanisms which 
would directly support people's ownership and motivation to use the forest 
patrimony for the benefit of themselves and the rest of society," 
Patosaari said. 
The agreement, entitled the "Non-Legally Binding Instrument on All Types 
of Forests," was negotiated in April within the UN Forum on Forests and 
transmitted to the General Assembly following its approval by the UN 
Economic and Social Council. 
While not legally binding, the agreement approved on on December 17 sets a 
standard in forest management that is expected to impact efforts to 
reverse the loss of forest cover, reduce deforestation, prevent forest 
degradation, promote sustainable livelihoods and reduce poverty for people 
dependent on forests for their survival. 
"There is much more to this instrument than just protecting trees," 
General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said at a special event following 
the adoption of the agreement. He emphasized the growing recognition of 
the role of forests in stabilizing climate change, and protecting 
biodiversity and ecosystems. 
"And let us not forget that today, over 1.6 billion people depend on 
forests for fuel, food, medicine and income," he said. "So protecting 
forests really means fostering sustainable development." 
Forests need to be protected because they are disappearing at an alarming 
rate, said Kerim, noting that over the past 15 years, more than three 
percent of the planet's forests had vanished. "The instrument we have just 
adopted thus expresses our will to respond to this alarming trend." 
In Indonesia, which has been losing forests to illegal loggers at a rapid 
rate, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Wednesday called on his 
countrymen to plant trees in a effort to avoid flood and landslide 
disasters. 
Witnessing a simulation on tsunami drill at Gunung Sugih subdistrict in 
Cilegon, Banten to mark the third anniversary of the deadly Asian tsunami 
which hit Aceh province on December 26, 2004, the president said 
widespread deforestation could cause floods, landslides and land erosion. 
Landslides and floods triggered by heavy rain this week have left over 120 
people dead or missing on Indonesia's Java island. Thousands of people 
have been left homeless. 

Yudhoyono called on regional governments and all public agencies to plant 
trees in barren areas to save the Earth from global warming and climate 
change. 
The use of wood energy can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can 
contribute to poverty reduction, according to the latest study on global 
uses for wood presented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, 
in November. 
But the UN agency warned that the use of wood for fuel can result in 
deforestation or forest degradation if sustainable forest management is 
not effectively practiced. 
Today half of the annual global harvest of roundwood is used for energy, 
the FAO paper states. More than two billion people depend on wood for 
their daily energy demand, mainly for cooking, heating and small 
industrial production. 
In sub-Saharan Africa, fuelwood and charcoal supply over 70 percent of the 
national energy demand. 
Now, in addition to the traditional uses of wood for fuel, wood is seen as 
valuable feedstock for biofuel production. 
High oil prices, the need for secure energy supplies and concerns over 
climate change have led to a new interest in bioenergy that could affect 
forests because forests occupy land which could be used for crops 
producing liquid biofuels. 
Forests and forest residues could become even more important for the 
direct conversion to liquid biofuels. Some experts predict that wood will 
become the major source of biofuels in the future, replacing agricultural 
crops and residues. 
"Despite the apparent benefits of biofuels, caution should be exercised 
when planning and implementing large-scale liquid bio-fuel projects," said 
Wulf Killmann, director of FAO's Forest Products and Industries Division. 
"Governments should ensure that there are no serious negative impacts on 
the environment and society," he said. 
Agro-fuel crops might expand into forests, generating land use conflicts 
and increasing deforestation, with implications for biological diversity, 
climate change and water. 
The FAO called upon countries to develop their wood energy sectors in line 
with sustainable forest management concepts and to introduce safeguards 
for the production of liquid biofuels to avoid unwanted negative impacts 
on the environment and local populations. 
At the special event at UN Headquarters, Under-Secretary-General for 
Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang spanned the gap between local and 
global, saying, "To enable forests to contribute to the overall 
development of society, we need further pro-poor, pro-nature and 
pro-growth actions that link trees and forests to the achievement of the 
internationally agreed development goals." 

---