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United Nations

D.R. Humphreys

 
The United Nations is a system of intergovernmental organisations that was established in 1945. That same year the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the first UN specialised agency to be given a mandate covering forests, was created. However it was only in the 1990s that the UN developed a policy role in forests.
 

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

 
In December 1989 UN General Assembly resolution 44/228 announced that the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) would be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. During the early UNCED preparatory negotiations it was agreed that a Framework Convention on Climate Change and a Convention on Biological Diversity should be concluded. Several proposals were made for a third convention – a global forests convention – to be opened for signature at Rio. Proposals to this effect were made in 1990 by the European Council, the Houston summit of the Group of Seven Developed Countries, the European Parliament and the Second World Climate Conference. The FAO offered to host negotiations for a forests convention. However while the idea of a forests convention enjoyed support from developed countries the Group of 77 Developing Countries (G77) made clear that a convention was unacceptable. The two states that led for the G77 during the forest negotiations, namely Malaysia and India, argued that forests were a sovereign national resource that should not be subject to international regulation. During the negotiations the G77 refused to recognise the principle of  “stewardship” introduced by developed countries to signify that all countries have a responsibility to look after their forests for the common good of humanity. Without a consensus for a convention the two forest outputs from the UNCED negotiations took the form of soft law. They were the Non-Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests (commonly referred to as the “Forest Principles”) and Chapter 11, “Combating Deforestation”, of Agenda 21. Following the UNCED there was a three-year hiatus in United Nations forest diplomacy. 
 

In 1995 the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) dealt with forests for the first time since its creation in 1993. Prior to the CSD meeting the Canadian and Malaysian governments had co-sponsored an ad hoc Intergovernmental Working Group on Forests that generated a consensus for a forests body to be created within the UN system. This idea was endorsed by the CSD’s Intersessional Working Group on Sectoral Issues (February 1995). The third session of the CSD (April 1995) subsequently created the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests with a two-year lifespan.
 
 

Intergovernmental Panel on Forests

 
The Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) was an open-ended forum. This meant that while any UN member state could participate in its work, it formal membership was limited to the 53 member states of the CSD. It met four times between September 1995 and February 1997. In support of the IPF the Interagency Task Force on Forests (ITFF) was created. This comprised eight organisations with a forest-related mandate, namely the FAO (which chaired the task force), Centre for International Forestry Research, the Convention on Biological Diversity, International Tropical Timber Organization, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank. The ITFF had no independent budget, project management or policy implementation role, and was intended to function as an informal and flexible mechanism in support of the IPF.
 

The IPF’s agenda comprised five programme areas: (i) implementation of the UNCED forest decisions; (ii) financial assistance and technology transfer; (iii) scientific research, forest assessment and criteria and indicators; (iv) trade and environment in relation to forests; and (v) international organizations, institutions and instruments. The bulk of the IPF’s time was spent negotiating various proposals for action, namely suggestions and recommendations that governments and other actors may wish to adopt in order to promote sustainable forest management at the national level.
 

At its final session the IPF deliberated the desirability of a forests convention. Malaysia, which was one of the strongest opponents of a convention at the UNCED, now supported a convention. The European Union (EU) also favoured a convention, as did Canada and Russia. However the United States now opposed a convention. The Amazonian Pact countries, in particular Brazil, also opposed a convention. Environmental and indigenous peoples’ groups claimed that a convention would promote the interests of the timber industry. Like the UNCED the IPF was unable to reach agreement on this issue. It recommended the creation of an Intergovernmental Forum on Forests to continue the UN forest policy dialogue.
 
 

Intergovernmental Forum on Forests

 
The Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) was created in 1997 with a three-year life span. It met four times between October 1997 and February 2000. Like the IPF, the IFF reported to the CSD and was an open-ended forum. The ITFF continued in existence to support the IFF. The IFF’s agenda comprised three categories: (i) promoting and facilitating the implementation of the IPF proposals for action; (ii) considering matters left pending, and other issues arising, from the IPF process; and (iii) international arrangements and mechanisms. The IFF agreed only to voluntary rather than mandatory national reporting, and its work on implementation was criticised by civil society groups. Like the IPF the IFF negotiated a body of proposals for action, most of which relate to matters left pending from the IPF process, such as trade, the underlying causes of deforestation, protected areas, forest research, valuation of forest goods and services and the rehabilitation of forest cover in environmentally critical areas.
 

As with the IPF, the final session of the IFF was devoted to debating the future international arrangement on forests. Canada negotiated hard for a forests convention, with support from some others states, including Costa Rica, Malaysia, Russia and Switzerland. The EU was formally bound to support a convention, although some EU member states did not support this view. The US and the Amazonian Pact states remained opposed to a convention. After an all-night negotiation session the IFF recommended to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that a United Nations Forum on Forests be created. This was approved by the ECOSOC in its resolution 2000/35 of October 2000.
 
 

United Nations Forum on Forests

 
The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) was created for an initial period of five years. It first met in 2001. Its creation represented a raising of the profile of forest issues within the UN system. Unlike the IPF and IFF, the UNFF has universal membership and reports directly to the ECOSOC, rather than to the CSD. In support of the UNFF the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) was created. The CPF is an interagency group similar to the ITFF, which was discontinued shortly after the IFF’s final meeting. Chaired by the FAO the CPF has a membership of 14 organisations, namely the eight member organisations of the ITFF plus the Convention to Combat Desertification, Framework Convention on Climate Change, Global Environment Facility, International Union of Forest Research Organizations, World Agroforestry Centre and World Conservation Union (IUCN)
 

The UNFF created three ad hoc expert groups on: monitoring assessment and reporting; finance and the transfer of environmentally sound technologies; and the parameters of a possible legal framework on forests. At its second, third and fourth sessions it successfully negotiated a total of 12 resolutions, including a ministerial statement to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. The subjects of the other resolutions included implementation of the IPF/IFF proposals for action, forest health and productivity, forest-related scientific knowledge, social and cultural aspects of forests and enhanced cooperation. However negotiations on some other issues, including finance and traditional forest-related knowledge, broke down without agreement. At its fifth session in May 2005 the UNFF failed to agree either a ministerial declaration or a new international arrangement on forests. Instead it agreed to hold a further two sessions. At its sixth session in February 2006 the UNFF agreed four global objectives, namely to: reverse the loss of forest cover worldwide through sustainable forest management; enhance forest-based economic, social and environmental benefits including by improving the livelihoods of forest-dependent people; increase significantly the area of protected forests worldwide and other areas of sustainably-managed forests; and reverse the decline in official development assistance for sustainable forest management and mobilize significantly increased new and additional financial resources from all sources. Like the UNCED, IPF and IFF, the UNFF could not agree on the desirability of a forests convention, although its sixth session did decide that states should negotiate a non-legally binding instrument on forests, a decision that represents a compromise between the pro- and anti-convention states. The sixth session also agreed to extend the life of the UNFF to 2015 at which point its effectiveness should be reviewed.
 
See also Biodiversity Convention; Food and Agriculture Organisation; International Trade.

 

References and Further Reading

 
Canadian Council on International Law, Editor. Global Forests and International Environmental Law. London: Kluwer Law International, 1996.
 
Humphreys, David. Forest Politics: The Evolution of International Cooperation. London: Earthscan, 1996.
 
Humphreys, David. Logjam: Deforestation and the Crisis of Global Governance. London: Earthscan, 2006.
 
Smouts, Marie-Claude. Tropical Forests, International Jungle: The Underside of Global Ecopolitics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
 
Tarasofsky, Richard G., Editor. Assessing the International Forest Regime: IUCN Environmental Policy and Law Paper No. 37. Gland: IUCN The World Conservation Union.