Summary: February 16, 2001: Informal Consultations of the United Nations Forum on Forests. Concluding remarks by Ms. Astrid Bergquist, Representative of Sweden on behalf of the European Union (New York)
I have the honour to speak on the behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union; Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and the associated countries Cyprus and Malta align themselves with this statement. We believe that the opportunity to share views and gain common understanding of programme elements in this informal forum has been very valuable to give guidance to the
secretariat in the preparation of the Secretary General's report These discussions have been enriched by a broad participation.
We are delighted to see that there is a strong consensus to focus on implementation. As stated by Ambassador Asadi on behalf of the Group of 77, we must now focus on implementation of the proposals for sustainable forest management. It is at the regional and national levels and with the help of CPF organisations that implementation must be done and the Plan of Action should be a tool towards this end. The EU has strongly advocated basing the Plan of Action on the IFF final report (para A.9),
which outlines how implementation of the IPF/IFF proposals should be undertaken, in particular supporting countries assessments. Priorities should therefore be developed in national processes.
In order to facilitate the work of the first substantive session of the UNFF we also hope that the Secretariat will work with the Bureau to provide us with an annotated agenda for the June meeting in good time.
Regarding the Multi-Year Programme of Work (MYPOW), we encourage the UNFF secretariat to work further on its matrix in order to facilitate the development of this programme and to take account of the drafts produced by a number of delegations including the EU. The final matrix will provide an easy over-view making the schedule of the work clear.
Over the week agreement has been built on the need for monitoring, assessment and reporting that are based on the structures already in place. Monitoring and assessment should be based on a credible voluntary reporting system, using criteria and indicators for Sustainable Forest Management. To make reporting more meaningful, sample reports could be presented and discussed at each session to allow exchange of views.
National governments and CPF members should identify expected success criteria for the coming five years. They should, at an early stage, describe achievements as well as obstacles to progress. Provisions should also be made for third party assessment of this process, possibly at regional basis.
We emphasise the importance of better co-operation as well as policy and programme co-ordination for facilitating the implementation of existing commitments and for increasing the efficiency of the international arrangement on forests, for which the Collaborative Partnership on Forests has a vital part to play. The CPF participants should undertake joint programming that is consistent with policies, strategies and activities promoted by the UNFF. It is heartening to see that we seem all to
agree that the CPF should be a compact body, consisting of the organisations that participated in the ITFF while adding the Climate and Desertification conventions as well as the Global Environment Facility. Furthermore, the CPF should invite other relevant organisations, processes and initiatives, including NGOs, IPOs and private sector entities to contribute. As Nigeria on the behalf of the G77 and Australia stated, regional bodies should also be consulted. As said by the United States and
the representative of FAO, it is of vital importance that governments directing the executive bodies of the organisations forming the CPF see to it that UNFF priorities are included in the programme of work for the CPF bodies. It is also essential that the CPF should be operational at UNFF 1.
Cross-sectoral work should be addressed at the national level mainly through national forest programs. At the regional and international levels, we suggest that the UNFF be pro-active and seek to engage other partners and processes, possibly through specific initiatives. In this context, we are aware, as Brazil reminded us, that many factors such as financial resources, capacity building and technological transfer are important for the successful implementation of Sustainable Forest Management
and that economic, social and cultural dimensions must also be considered. Mexico added that international trade in support of SFM is also an important factor. As regards financing, the Oslo workshop showed that a wide range of mechanisms for financing SFM is available at the national level. An ad-hoc expert group with Terms of Reference based on gathering and sharing positive experiences, focused on forest-specific issues, would be the best way of addressing this issue.
Another focus of the UNFF as a forum for policy and dialogue should be to foster a common understanding of SFM. In order to keep the necessary action-oriented approach of the UNFF this function should be linked directly to implementation. The EU proposed that we deal with one cross-cutting issue at each session of the UNFF, leaving sufficient opportunity to discuss two other issues of priority per session, which arise from current developments in other processes including Conventions.
As to strengthening political commitment, the high-level segment of the UNFF must be correlated with building political commitment throughout the civil society. It is therefore essential to plan and prepare these segments to achieve the highest political impact. These segments should focus on specific themes and be limited in time. We suggest that high-level ministerial segments be organised twice over the five years of the UNFF the last one taking place at UNFF 5. An important part of these
segments is the dialogue with the heads of the organisations forming the CPF.
The parameters of a mandate for developing a legal framework for all types of forests will need to be further discussed so that UNFF can make a recommendation to ECOSOC and the General Assembly. In view of the complexity of this matter it should first be dealt with in an ad hoc working group. A UNFF session discussion should take place by 2005 based on a report from this ad hoc working group and the assessment of the UNFF's work.
Another important issue will be multi-stakeholder dialogue. The participation of civil society, the private sector and other major groups will be of paramount importance to the success of UNFF and the Plan of Action.
On the basis of this week's fruitful consultations, the European Union looks forward to a further exchange of views with delegations and the bureau during the spring in order to have a successful UNFF1.
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