PAPERS PRESENTED

ITEM 3: Review of Actions taken by FAO on the Recommendations made at the 44^th Session of the Committee

At its 44^th Session, the Committee made a number of recommendations to FAO, which are listed below.

1. Illegal Logging

Assist in facilitating a dialogue between governments, industry, international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on ways to address this issue at the national and international levels.

Implementation:

• FAO and ITTO joined forces in a project to analyze experiences and derive lessons that could be of benefit for future actions aimed at improving governance in the sector. The FAO/ITTO project will, by the end of the year, have developed Guidelines, based on the best practices identified to date, to help governments organize their control of illegal activities. An expert consultation to scrutinize the soundness of these guidelines is planned for the second half of 2004. It is also planned that this expert consultation will address definition issues;

• We are developing a legal database for various countries on assessment of extent and design of corrective measures against illegal acts in forestry;

• FAO and UNECE have scheduled a workshop on illegal logging in the UNECE region - causes and extent - for 16 and 17 September 2004 in Geneva.

2. Global Forestry Convention

Study the different positions on the desirability of a global forestry convention versus dealing with forest sustainability issues in other ways.

Implementation:

• The CEPI position on the issue of the potential of a legally binding instrument, such as a global forest convention (to be distributed during the meeting), touches upon all major issues of mutual concern;

• In 2005, at the end of its current mandate, UNFF will report back to ECOSOC on its accomplishments. Should ECOSOC members decide to pursue an agreement on forests, they would need to make a request to the UN General Assembly to establish an International Negotiating Committee (INC);

• Applying the approach: “Form follows function”, there are only few options.

These could include:

• an extension of UNFF in its present form;

• a longer-term political obligation of UN member states than that of UNFF, which was not designed as “UN commission”;

• a UN commission like the CSD, based on a clearer institutional mandate in the UN;

• a stand-alone framework convention;

• a protocol to an existing convention like the CBD; or

• the expansion of an existing international agreement such as ITTA.

The choice of the “form”, however, is entirely up to the international community of UN member states. Countries may take the position of being in favour, against, or undecided on the issue of an agreement on forests.

FAO does not take any position in this issue, but is neutral on the subject. The organization focuses on serving the technical needs of its member countries.

3. Mutual Recognition (MR)

Continue its work, through its internal system, to get governments involved in supporting MR; report on a regular basis on activities within the FAO system that promote MR; and facilitate the dialogue with NGOs.

Implementation:

• In June 2003 in Borgo Spante, Italy, FAO convened a closed meeting for the CEOs of eight certification schemes from Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe to discuss the way ahead. “Mutual recognition”, however, was not the call of the day, with some certification schemes opposing such an objective. Rather, certification schemes should increase their “mutual understanding” with regard to standard setting, accreditation and certification procedures and practices. The meeting of CEOs was successful in this regard. A second meeting of this kind is planned for the second half of 2004;

• Upcoming issues on forest certification, such as the interactions between C&I processes, national policy making and standard setting in forest certification, have been analysed in the context of a major analytical FAO study entitled: “Trade and SFM – Impacts and Interactions” which will be published in June 2004. Furthermore, the mutual understanding of major initiatives like the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and its relationship with forest certification, in particular legality aspects, needs to be enhanced. The aforementioned preparations by FAO with regard to definitions of terminology on “illegal logging and trade in forest products” should lead to practical solutions for positioning forest certification in the context of national forest policy making and implementation in order to avoid the risk of having forest certification held hostage to the necessary compliance with international and national law .

4. Communication

Provide information on a regular basis on international meetings/conferences that deal with sustainable forestry issues, update meetings calendar, and inform the industry of the agendas of such events; regularly inform industry about FAO’s new publications, reports and meetings. ICFPA offered to help FAO identify industry experts to participate in expert meetings and seminars organized by FAO.

Implementation:

• The offer of ICFPA to help identify industry experts to participate in meetings is gratefully acknowledged and will be made use of;

• Efforts are being made to create an electronic communication tool to keep ACPWP members informed about current developments in the international forestry agenda, including expert meetings, conferences, new publications and other issues of interest to the forest and the pulp and paper industries. This will be incorporated into the FAO Forestry Department’s Forest Information System (FORIS), which is under development. FORIS is an umbrella information system which aids the production, management and publication of data, information and knowledge. This goal is supported by a number of web-enabled, independent, yet fully integrated sub-modules, such as web-development, web-view, networking, statistics, species and Geo (manages geographical units);

• The system hosts, in all, 157 sites, as well as FAO Forestry Department, the Collaborative Partnership of Forests, The National Forestry Program Facility, United Nations Forum on Forests, and various collaborative efforts between FAO Forestry Department and its partners (IUFRO and CABI). Sites are offered in English, French, Spanish and Chinese. The total number of pages offered through the system is estimated to be around 15-20,000;

• Information on the XXII World Forestry Congress, which will take place in August 2005 in Brisbane, and on FAO’s Regional Forestry Commission meetings in 2004 will be shared at this meeting.

5. Sustainable Forest Products

Continue its efforts in presenting the advantages of wood versus other competing raw materials and promoting the positive aspects of paper and wood products in the various meetings that FAO attends.

Implementation:

• FAO promotes the concept of increasing the use of sustainably produced forest products wherever possible. A proposal for a new study is under preparation, aiming to analyze the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of wood products’ substitution, with the emphasis on tropical woods. It is planned to work on two different case studies in developing countries, applying well known assessment methods, such as ecological balance or analysis of material flows.

6. Climate Change

Industry will take up the issue of forest products as carbon sinks. FAO is requested to collaborate with the ICFPA Climate Change Working Group on Forest Products on this issue.

Implementation:

• FAO supported the UNFCCC Secretariat in the preparation of a paper on the estimation, reporting and accounting of carbon in harvested wood products. The paper was presented at COP 9 in Milan;

• FAO, jointly with IUCN and UNEP, led a process to inform climate change negotiators from Latin America, Africa and Asia on forestry issues and the impacts of their decisions;

• FAO is presently working on a submission to SBSTA on small scale forestry projects.

7. World Forestry Congress

ICFPA is planning to host a side event at the WFC in Quebec City, Canada, in September 2003. It will consist of a seminar to discuss the efforts of the forest industry in sustainable forest management. The Director of FAO’s Forest Products and Economics Division will be invited to participate in the side event.

Implementation:

• FAO actively participated in the side event and made a presentation on forest products production and trade.

The following proposals were also raised:

Develop more regular contact with industry beyond the annual sessions in order to improve communication and actualize activities reporting;

Implementation:

• Two intersessional meetings took place, in October 2003 in Rome and November 2003 in Brussels;

Identify how the Committee could play a more active role in COFO (e.g. address the COFO plenary).

Implementation

The 17^th Session of the FAO’s Committee on Forestry will take place in Rome from 15-19 March 2005.

The Committee could

• Forward their inputs through their national delegations

• Hold a side meeting

Attachment

FAO Regional Forestry Commission Meetings in 2004