Summary: 30 October 2009, New York - Statement on behalf of the European Union by H.E. Mr. Anders Lidén, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden, at the 9th Special Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests on the Means of Implementation for Sustainable Forest Management, United Nations
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.
Adequate financing of sustainable forest management is crucial for the achievement of the four global objectives on forests, and the effective implementation of the non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests.
The EU thus welcomes today's decision on Means of Implementation for sustainable forest management.
We would like to thank all the delegations who have contributed to the process of informal consultations. We wish to honour you, Mr Chairman, the Bureau and the Co-facilitators for your leadership and accomplishments.
The EU believes that the facilitative process has the potential to be of real assistance to countries in assessing their needs for finance. In addition, it can play a key role in mobilizing, accessing and, above all, enhancing the effective use of existing and evolving financial resources.
We believe that the facilitative process will need the full support of the member states of the Forum, the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, the private sector and other stakeholders, including regional organizations which can share their knowledge of financing needs and opportunities and the enabling conditions required for investments in sustainable forest management.
In this regard we consider that the National Forest Programme Facility hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Program on Forests hosted by the World Bank and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests' sourcebook on Funding for sustainable forest management have important roles to play. Other initiatives that could potentially create synergies for investment strategies in sustainable forest management should also be considered.
We think that the facilitative process should start its work immediately after the special session. We are happy to hear that financial resources have already been allocated to make this process operational. We are prepared to share ideas with other member states and the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat in order to start designing the facilitative process without delay.
The EU also looks forward to working with the open-ended intergovernmental ad hoc expert group, which will allow for further exploration of the wide range of options for mobilizing and accessing new and additional financial resources from all sources for sustainable forest management.
The ad hoc expert group (working within the logic of the facilitative process) can serve as a platform for countries to share views, as well as for proposing strategies to mobilize and more effectively use financial resources to support the implementation of sustainable forest management. We look forward to a fruitful output from the deliberations of the group.
Mr. Chairman,
The European Union considers that this unanimous agreement on an issue that has taken tremendous effort to resolve, allows us to concentrate on the set of social issues linked to sustainable forest management (which are at the heart of the Ninth Session of the Forum) to the benefit of forest policy, forest management and forest depending peoples and livelihoods.
While the world's forests face new threats, new opportunities are also emerging and there is an increased awareness of the importance of sustainable management of all types of forests. The EU reiterates its commitment to working constructively on the issue of forest finance that is at the heart of the decision that we have adopted today.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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