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4th Ministerial Conference on the
Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE)
(Vienna, 29 April 2003)
Statement by Mrs.
Brigita Schmögnerová,
Executive Secretary
Excellencies, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
It is an honour and a
pleasure for me to address the 4th Ministerial
Conference on the Protection of Forests.
I believe that you will take the opportunity
to further make significant policy commitments
to achieve sustainable management of forests
in Europe. I represent the organisation
that since 1948 has been committed to
addressing forest and timber issues. In
1948, not far from here, at Marianske
Lazne in the former Czechoslovakia, the
European Timber Conference founded both
the ECE Timber Committee and its sister
body the FAO European Forestry Commission.
Since then we have provided reliable information,
independent analysis and a policy forum
for the sector as whole, adapting our
activity to the needs of the time.
While forestry was one
of the main subjects of disappointment
at the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment
and Development, since then, I believe
the forest sector has taken the lead in
the debate by accepting the necessity
of a balanced approach to the three pillars
of sustainable development: economic,
social and environmental, and the unavoidable
necessity of an in-depth dialogue, involving
all stakeholders, about concepts, strategies
and monitoring. Given the huge differences
in conditions, a regional approach has
proved highly effective. The Johannesburg
Summit, which has a major paragraph on
forests, stressed the importance of a
regional contribution to achieve these
global goals. Indeed the third session
of the United Nations Forum on Forests,
in Geneva next month, will hear a presentation
from UNECE and the MCPFE on regional cooperation
in Europe on achieving the United Nations
global goals.
Allow me to draw your
attention to the role the UNECE is playing
in promoting sustainable forest management
in the region, in close cooperation with
the Ministerial Conference. Not to waste
your time, I would like to mention just
two areas:
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In cooperation
with FAO and other partners, in improving
the quality and relevance of the information
available to decision makers, through
forest resource assessment work and
the criteria and indicators of sustainable
forest management. You see the results
in the document on the State of Europe's
Forests, produced jointly by us and
the Vienna Liaison Unit, and in the
revised set of indicators which you
will approve. We could consider to
extend this cooperation to the Montreal
Process.
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In preventing environmental
degradation: the Convention on Long-Range
Transboundary Air Pollution is one
of UNECE's major achievements. Under
this convention, the Intergovernmental
Cooperative Programme on Forests has
set up an ambitious monitoring and
analysis system, providing annual
data on forest conditions in the region,
and more recently it is carrying out
a more in-depth and analytical programme.
Excellencies,
I would like to take
this opportunity to congratulate the Ministerial
Conference process on the creativity,
dynamism and openness with which it has
led the regional forest dialogue, from
the rather technical approach at Strasbourg,
to the path breaking commitments made
in Helsinki, to the social dimension in
Lisbon and the balanced and rounded approach
apparent in the Vienna general declaration
and the four resolutions, which you will
approve here.
What are the main challenges
facing the forest sector in Europe, and
what can be done about them? I would like
to propose some ideas, based on our experience
and analysis, notably the study of the
long term outlook for the sector which
we are working on and which will be available
this autumn.
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One major challenge
is to develop a cross sectoral approach:
the days are gone when forest policy
matters could be kept separate from
trade policy, energy policy, or environment
policy. The challenge for the forest
sector is to understand the developments
of the other sectors and how they
will influence the forest sector,
and to communicate proactively the
forest sector's concerns to the other
sectors. This requires a mind open
to new problems as well as flexible
structures for communication and dialogue,
at the local, national and regional
levels.
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Secondly, we feel
there is too great a gap, of understanding
and communication, between the upstream
concerns directly linked to forest
management and the downstream concerns
of markets, trade and consumption.
The intense debate about certification
of forest products has brought the
major actors together, but too often
in a tense and antagonistic way, without
a proper understanding of the interactions
taking place and the potential for
cooperation between all actors - that
is governments, forest owners, industries,
consumers and NGOs - to promote sustainable
forest management. A seminar held
one month ago, under the auspices
of UNECE and FAO, with participation
from all the groups I have just mentioned,
considered strategies for the sound
use of wood, and concluded that sustainable
forest management is a prerequisite
for sound use of wood, and that sound
use of wood contributes to sustainable
forest management. The seminar made
a number of detailed recommendations
and proposals, which are tabled at
this Conference and which will, we
hope, form the basis of a new set
of joint activities.
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Last but not least,
I feel the forest sector issues arising
from the transition process need more
consideration. Many of the most urgent
forest sector issues in our region
concern these countries: how to help
the thousands or millions of new forest
owners emerging from the restitution
process, how to protect the forests
from pressure arising from poverty
and social change, especially when
many forest sector institutions are
still very weak? On the positive side,
export led growth in the forest sector
has been a significant positive factor
in many transition economies. Rapid
structural changes are taking place.
There are some risks and many opportunities.
We feel it is important that UNECE,
with MCPFE, FAO and other partners,
work together to understand and address
these major issues.
Finally, I would like
to reaffirm UNECE's commitment to promoting
sustainable forest management in the region
and to working together with MCPFE in
the future as in the past to achieve this
objective.
Thank you.
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