The United Nations Forum on Forests met today to continue its discussion on the past, present and future work of the international arrangement on forests.
Hadil Fontes da Rocha Vianna, head of the Environment Division of Brazil’s Foreign Relations Ministry said Brazil had always been deeply involved in all negotiations related to forest issues, as the Amazon region represented about 60 per cent of the Brazilian territory.
Regarding the overarching principles that guided the position of the Amazonian countries, he said that although those countries were willing to work towards a satisfactory outcome for the Forum, they did not consider adequate the adoption of a legally binding international instrument on forests.
For Brazil, even a voluntary code, as proposed, would not be a proper outcome of the IAF. Moreover, together with the Amazonian countries, Brazil considered that the adoption of quantifiable and specific temporal targets was not the adequate global response to the conservation, development and sustainable development of all types of forests.
Instead, he said that efforts should focus on the definition of strategic objectives that, together with the adequate means of implementation, would enable countries to develop and implement sustainable forest management.
A strengthened Forum, Rocha Vianna continued, would constitute the core of an international arrangement on forests. That did not mean, however, to maintain the status quo.
The new international arrangement should include such elements as national policies and measures to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.
It should also promote international cooperation, including South-South cooperation, playing a crucial and catalytic role in reinforcing the efforts of developing countries and countries with economies in transition to improve the management of their forests.
Besides it should include the enhancement of the capacity of countries to significantly increase the production of forest products from sustainably managed sources through policies and measures adopted at global, regional, subregional and national levels; and the establishment of a clearing-house mechanism to facilitate a better exchange of experiences and good practices.
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