The Global Forestry Conference: A Bold Showcase For Best Practices In Indonesian Forestry
Background: The relationship between economic development and environmental degradation was first placed on the international agenda in 1972, at the UN Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm. After the Conference, Governments set up the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which today continues to act as a global catalyst to protect the environment. Little, however, was done in the succeeding years to integrate environmental concerns into national economic planning and decision-making. Overall, the environment continued to deteriorate, and such problems as ozone depletion, global warming and water pollution grew more serious, while the destruction of natural resources accelerated at an alarming rate. By 1983, when the UN set up the World Commission on Environment and Development, environmental degradation was understood to be a matter of survival for developing nations. Led by Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, the Commission put forward the concept of sustainable development as an alternative approach to one simply based on economic. After considering the 1987 Brundtland report, the UN General Assembly called for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The primary goals of the Summit were to come to an understanding of “development” that would support socio-economic development and prevent the continued deterioration of the environment, and to lay a foundation for a global partnership between the developing and the more industrialized countries, based on mutual needs and common interests, that would ensure a healthy future for the planet.
The Earth Summit: The two-week Earth Summit was scheduled for June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. After months of planning, education and negotiations among all member states of the United Nations, representatives convened in Rio de Janeiro and accomplished the following: Agenda 21 — a comprehensive program of action for global action in all areas of sustainable development; The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development — a series of principles defining the rights and responsibilities of States; The Statement of Forest Principles — a set of principles to underlie the sustainable management of forests worldwide. The Statement of Forest Principles: The non–legally binding statement of principles for the sustainable management of forests, was the first global consensus reached on forests. Among its provisions: That all countries, notably developed countries, should make an effort to “green the world” through reforestation and forest conservation; That States have a right to develop forests according to their socio-economic needs, in keeping with national sustainable development policies; and Specific financial resources should be provided to develop programs that encourage economic and social substitution policies.
THE PROBLEM: The Anti-Tropical Timber Campaign. After the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, several European countries considered bans on all tropical timber and related products to curb rainforest destruction. Austria fired the first shot in this new trade war when it implemented mandatory regulations in September 1992 requiring labels on all tropical timber imports and a tariff of 70 percent was imposed on such products. This eco-labeling law, the first of its kind in the country, was protested by major tropical wood exporting countries, including Indonesia. Pressure within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) brought this case to the attention of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), and the world.
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