Collaborative Partnership on Forests

Illustration from the United Nations Crossing the New Millennium Art Exhibition, by Chinese Painting Master artist Ma Han Zhang - Autumn Leaves Turning Redder than Spring Flower.

When the United Nations Forum on Forests concluded its first-ever substantive session in June, it seized the opportunity to define its scope of work for the next five years and design new approaches to international cooperation through the newly formed Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF). Established by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a subsidiary body with full membership, the Forum plans to lay the groundwork for the promotion of management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests, as well as to strengthen long-term political commitment to that end. The multi-year plan highlights the three pillars of sustainable forest development: integration of environmental, social and developmental forestry concerns. It also encompasses other cross-cutting issues, such as transfer of technology, finance, capacity-building and trade.

The Forum also adopted its plan of action, which it saw as an evolving process, directed at the international, regional and subregional levels. The plan’s implementation would require the establishment of national focal points, effective cooperation among CPF members, bilateral donors and countries, and public/private partnerships, as well as active stakeholder participation. The plan also calls for countries to set their own national priorities, targets and timetables for the implementation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests/Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IPF/IFF) proposals for action in their national context, urging countries to develop or strengthen national forest programmes. It also includes elements that are important tools for such implementation, including criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, forest-related scientific knowledge, monitoring, assessment and reporting, and concepts, terminology and definitions, as well as financial resources. Concrete, process-oriented targets should be considered, with a view to being adopted, if possible at the Forum’s next session.

The plan also notes that financing, technical assistance and capacity-building for implementing the IPF/IFF proposals for action will be provided by bilateral and multilateral cooperation, stakeholders and domestic resources. In that regard, it urges Governments of developed countries to increase the quality and quantity of official development assistance.

Opening the session, Chairman Mubarak Hussein Rahmtalla of Sudan said that the Forum’s establishment was among the most concrete legacies of “Agenda 21” - the comprehensive plan for global action in all areas of sustainable development - which was adopted in Rio in 1992. The new body took on particular significance as the world community prepared for the upcoming World Summit for Sustainable Development, informally known as “Rio +10”, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

M. Hosny El-Lakany, Assistant Director-General of the Forestry Department, Food and Agriculture Organization and Chairman of the CPF, said the session would set the course for intergovernmental forestry deliberations and action. To that end, the partners had agreed to expand its membership slightly, and three new institutions had been invited to join: the secretariats of the Convention to Combat Deforestation, the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Control.

Following those status reports, the Forum heard a briefing by Warren Sach, Director of the Programme Planning and Budget Division, on the programme budget implications that would arise from the adoption of the multi-year programme of work. It was estimated that there would be requirements in the amount of $2.25 million under the programme budget for the biennium 2002-2003.