Posted
on 20 November 2011
Madrid, Spain – Certification has shown
that commercial forestry can co-exist with
conservation objectives in the Congo Basin,
according to conclusions reached at an international
seminar “Forest management as a tool for
cooperation and rural development in Central
Africa”, organized yesterday in Madrid by
WWF/Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN)
in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment,
Rural and Marine Affairs of Spain.
Many studies show that
best practices, such as certified forests,
can contribute to the conservation of key
species and the integrity of ecosystems,
although there is still room for improvement
to ensure that certified forests always
reach the best conservation standards.
“Growth in certification
is the best social, economic and environmental
option for the development of forestry across
the region. It offers a transparent model
that drives improvements in standards and
addresses key issues through a multi-stakeholder
process. As such, certification of forests
in the Congo Basin should at least treble
within the next five years to reach 15 million
hectares,” said George White, Head of GFTN.
Much has been achieved since the first seminar
that took place in 2006. Certification has
grown in the Congo Basin from around 41,000
hectares in 2006 to almost 5.2 million hectares
today. That’s the equivalent expansion in
size from the South Atlantic island of Saint
Helena (41,000 ha) to a nation roughly the
size of Costa Rica (5.11 million ha).
In recent years, legislative
processes both in the Congo Basin and Europe
to combat illegal trade of forest products
also started to change the market landscape,
increasing focus on legality in the region
and boosting public procurement in favour
of legal and certified forest products.
Yet many challenges
still remain. Felix Romero, Head of Forest
Programme, WWF Spain: “Strong market signals
to increase the demand for FSC, or at least
for “legal timber, are even more important
as they were in 2006. The market remains
an important driver and is a key condition
for both legality and certification. But
market demand within Europe generally, and
in Spain specifically, needs to further
increase. There is a need for more private
sector involvement and more international
cooperation in responsible forest management
and trade. “
The Congo Basin is the second largest tropical
forest after the Amazon, representing 180
million hectares – more than 15% of all
the worldwide tropical forests . As a main
consumer and second biggest European importer
of African tropical wood, Spain has a major
trading relationship with Congo Basin forest
industries, with the volume of timber trade
between Spain and the Congo Basin reaching
0.8 million m3 per year. That's a volume
a few stories shorter than the 102-story
Empire State building, which measures in
at just over 1 million cubic meters.
The event was opened
with a speech by Mr. Henri Djombo, Minister
of Sustainable Development, Forestry Economy
and the Environment of the Republic of Congo,
Ms. Yolanda Kakabadse, President of WWF
International and Ms. Felicidad Montero
Pleite, Under-secretary of the Environment
and Rural and Marine Affairs of Spain. Interventions
were made, amongst others, by the German
Development Bank, the Central African Forest
Commission, the London Zoological Society
and the Interafrican Forest Industries Association.
+ More
Eastern Himalayan nations
reach base camp on regional climate deal
Posted on 19 November
2011
Thimphu, Bhutan – The nations of Bhutan,
Nepal, India and Bangladesh have signed
a regional climate change adaptation declaration
that will see wide-ranging collaboration
on energy, water, food and biodiversity
issues, a deal that could lead the way to
similar climate adaptation plans being implemented
to cover other threatened ecosystems.
“The success of our initiative will not
only have direct and immediate benefits
for our own people, but we could be setting
a worthy precedent for other countries that
share similar conditions,” said Bhutan’s
Prime Minister Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y. Thinley.
The declaration was signed at the Climate
Summit for a Living Himalayas – Bhutan 2011,
a two-day summit that brought high-level
government officials, NGOs, leaders of civil
society, and youth ambassadors from the
four Eastern Himalayan nations to Bhutan’s
capital, Thimphu to work out a deal on energy
security, natural freshwater systems, food
security, and biodiversity across the region.
Energy framework
The four nations broadly agreed to combine
powers to increase access to “affordable
and reliable” clean energy resources and
technology through a regional knowledge
sharing mechanism. This would include diversification
of energy supply, improved regional connectivity
for electricity and natural gas, as well
as efforts to enhance energy efficiency
across the Eastern Himalayas.
Natural freshwater systems
Agreements on water security – the most
contentious are of the Summit declaration
– were somewhat diluted, but the four nations
did manage to see eye to eye on future activities
including collaborative ecosystem and disaster
management, knowledge sharing in water use
efficiency, and improving understanding
of impacts of climate change on water resources
across the region.
Food and livelihoods
Consensus was also reached on food security
and securing livelihoods, with the deal
covering adaptive approaches to improving
and sustaining food production, promoting
systems that help vulnerable communities
gain better access to nutritious food, as
well as regional knowledge sharing and capacity
building.
Biodiversity and sustainable use
“The framework of cooperation will see the
creation of an interconnected mosaic of
conservation spaces across the Eastern Himalayas,
crucial for communities that rely on the
region’s natural resources for their survival
and the protection of endangered species
such as the snow leopard,” said Liisa Rohweder,
CEO of WWF Finland
“These kinds of regional initiatives are
really needed - we should take this as a
positive example for COP 17 in Durban, and
for the upcoming Rio + 20 conference,” she
added.
New economic paradigm
Bhutan’s Prime Minister also made an urgent
call to create a new global economic paradigm
that takes the value of natural capital,
ecosystem services, and social well-being
into account for a sustainable future.
“We need to adopt a full course natural
accounting system which will in all probability
show us clearly that our economy is only
as healthy as the ecosystem services and
natural resources that sustain our life
on earth and power our economies,” Prime
Minister Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y. Thinley said
during his keynote address.
He added that solutions to the broader issues
of climate change, global warming and sustainability
were unlikely to emerge from the upcoming
climate talks in Durban later this month,
instead saying the way forward lies with
the Rio + 20 summit in 2012:
“With COP 17 unlikely to yield any earth-shaking
results, our hopes are pinned on the Rio
+20 Summit. It is at this event that every
nation and region must be prepared to play
an active and committed part,” the Bhutanese
Prime Minster stated.
