Forestry policies should aim to fight poverty, says Asia-Pacific commission

Adianto P. Simamora ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Hanoi   |  Mon, 04/28/2008 11:42 AM

Delegates from the Asia Pacific ended a meeting here Saturday calling for forestry policies to focus on people-centered development to help alleviate global poverty.

They said the now much-debated climate change issues had been one of the vehicles to return forestry affairs to the top of the world's agenda during the past two years.

"A key recommendation from the Asia Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) is to continue efforts to enhance community-based forest management and forestry initiatives that help reduce poverty," said Jan Heino, assistant director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which organized the week-long Asia-Pacific forestry forum.

The commission also called for greater attention and assistance to build the capacities of forestry countries to enable them to participate in increasingly complicated mechanisms being developed as part of the climate change agenda.

"The world is changing rapidly and the forestry sector can't ask it to turn more slowly. Therefore, the drive for continuous improvement, to do things better, to reinvent ourselves and institutions, must be ever-present." Heino said.

The commission said rapid changes to forestry challenges required new responses both from within and outside forestry sectors.

"The importance of developing multi-sectoral approaches and holistic policies is necessary to avoid inconsistencies and conflicts in the forestry sector," the commission said in a statement.

The APFC forum, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, as part of the first-ever Asia Pacific forestry week, was attended by government delegates to discuss forestry issues in the region.

Its recommendations, however, are not legally binding for member countries.

The world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions, the United States and China, attended the meeting. China will host the next APFC meeting in 2010.

The UN climate change conference in Bali last year adopted the so-called reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD) as a mechanism to slash carbon emissions.

Under the Bali roadmap, forestry countries are allowed to host pilot projects until 2012 when the world is expected to issue a new commitment in emissions reduction to replace the existing binding target set in the Kyoto Protocol.

In return for avoiding cutting down trees, the host country of REDD pilot projects will receive financial incentives voluntarily from rich nations.

The commission said emerging forest carbon funding mechanisms must reward countries for retaining forests and reducing damage to existing forests.

"The 'perverse' incentives that encourage forest loss must be avoided," the commission said.

Some delegates, however, expressed concerns that the complexity of forest carbon accounting mechanisms might constrain some countries from participating in forest-based responses to climate change.

"As foresters, we need to ask ourselves: if we have not succeeded in sustainable forestry management, why do we think we will do any better with REDD," said forester Shamsudin Ibrahim from Malaysia.

Indonesian delegate Nur Masripatin said she had no clear idea of financing mechanisms for REDD projects.

"I also don't know where the money for the REDD projects would come from," said Nur, a senior official at the Forestry Ministry.

Indonesia is the region's largest forestry nation with 120 million hectares of forests.

Experts have projected that the world's forests could save 27 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

The world's deforestation rate has reached 11 million hectares per year, due partly to the conversion of forests to palm oil and soybean plantations.

Indonesian climate expert Daniel Murdiyarso urged the speeding up of discussions about criteria for preparedness in implementing REDD projects.

"We are in a hurry since we only have two years to discuss the REDD concept," he told the forum.

Forest People's program director Marcus Colchestger said forestry countries also needed to calculate the number of people living in and around forests to formulate payment distributions.

"We often hear that one billion people are dependent on forests, but the reality is that the statistic and numbers are extremely poor. It is a shocking that we are moving into the 21st century and don't know how many people live in forests," he said.

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