The Twelfth World Forestry Conference, which was held in September of this year, focused on the reality that given the present situation and future trends, bold actions are necessary if our planet's forests are to be sustained. In my presentation on behalf of the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA) and American Forest & Paper Association, I offered four actions that foresters, scientists and businessmen agree are important to the future of our global industry, and to the future of forests around the world. The ICFPA represents industry in 40 nations. These countries comprise more than 80 percent of the world's paper and 50 percent of the world's wood products output.
First, all forest enterprises worldwide should commit to implementing sustainable forest management practices. ICFPA members have made this commitment by supporting voluntary forest management certification programs. As any SFI program participant can report, such programs involve working with various stakeholders to develop science-based standards that define actions necessary for forest operations to be economically viable while protecting environmental values. Such values include water quality and biodiversity, as well as other societal expectations for forests, such as scenic beauty and community stability.
Currently, 134 million hectares of forestland— most in developed countries— have been independently certified around the world by a variety of certification programs. This represents 3.5 percent of the world's forests. These lands comply with what we all would recognize as credible forest management certification standards of best management practices. Efforts are underway in developing countries to develop standards specific to those regions.
Making this commitment brings other issues to the forefront, such as ensuring that the full value of this work is captured in the marketplace. Gaining marketplace recognition requires a consistent message about the importance of certification that can be understood on every continent. It also requires that certification schemes be transparent, highly credible, and not become a thinly veiled trade barrier. This can be achieved by mutual recognition agreements between programs that are substantially similar.
Second, sustainable forest management should be practiced at national levels. This means elimination of illegal logging, which requires governments to pass and enforce laws banning the practice. This issue is a top priority for ICFPA and AF&PA— both groups have adopted similar policies and begun work with various groups including the Congo Basin Initiative and the intergovernmental Forest Law Enforcement and Governance.
Many stakeholders are willing to partner with governments in eliminating illegal logging. But their actions are futile without government institutions willing to enforce legal forest operations.
Another important component in developing sustainable practices at the national level is a balanced view of forest resources. Sustainability identifies three basic values for forestland: economic, environmental and social. Too often, well-meaning interests advance the notion that forests should not be harvested for commercial purposes, but instead should be conserved for future generations. In fact, commercial forest activities and nature conservation complement each other well. Plantations and protected areas in close proximity form a good landscape that achieves each of these values.
Poverty, starvation and a lack of opportunities for economic advancement are serious concerns in some areas, and these concerns can overshadow any forest issues. Sustainable forest operations can be part of the solution by making commercial use of forests in a manner that ensures such resources will be available in perpetuity. Governments can help by offering a secure, predictable and legally structured environment in which forest businesses can operate.
Third, looking beyond the country level, the global community must create open and transparent communication on our collective effort toward implementing sustainable forest management. Countries have gained much from implementing sustainable practices, and industry's collective worldwide interests have much to gain if the assessments are used to report progress toward sustainable forest management.
Such an action may require a more structured international approach to create this level of accountability. The forest products industry is ready to talk about what such an approach may entail. The United Nations Forum on Forests and other international bodies deal with forest issues. An important action they are well-qualified to perform is to give markets, policymakers and consumers a clear picture of which governments are enabling and encouraging sustainable, accountable and legal forest enterprises. Such international bodies could also identify locales around the world where that is not occurring.
Where accountability and transparency exist, free trade and competitive markets can have positive influences on sustainability. The marketplace decides whether products meet consumer expectations. Increasingly, those expectations include a level of confidence that businesses are acting responsibly towards the environment and towards individuals. Businesses and sovereign governments have a role in providing the information that society needs to make these judgments. Governments have the added responsibility of making sure that rule of law is embraced and implemented. When these roles are fulfilled, markets within a free trade system will make decisions that encourage sustainable practices.
This leads to my final proposal—broad support for global free trade. Globalization is not something to be feared. Instead, free trade allows real capital to flow into regions that need economic opportunity. These regions need that capital to address issues such as poverty, hunger and disease. To exercise economic opportunity, all regions must be able to see what they produce and buy what they need. Free trade permits that to happen.
Our forest products industry has had rough times in recent years. Sustainable forestry is vital for a sustainable industry. By committing to universal sustainable forestry, encouraging governments to enable sustainable forest management within their borders, creating an open and transparent global process to report on our collective progress toward sustainable forest management, and building broad support for free trade, we can assure that forests will be vital, healthy and productive into the future.
