Swiss call for better management of forests
Better management of forests could help the world reach the targets set out in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, say Swiss experts.
The comments were made during the fifth UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) meeting, currently taking place in New York.
The UN’s Millennium Goals were unanimously approved by 191 nations, including Switzerland, in 2000. One of their aims is to reduce poverty and hunger by half over the next ten years and to ensure environmental sustainability.
According to the UNFF, forests can play an important role in achieving these goals because woods and trees help maintain the fertility of agricultural land, protect water supplies and provide subsistence and incomes to 350 million people.
Christian Küchli and Jürgen Blaser from the Swiss environment agency told delegates that the decentralisation of forest management under good governmental supervision would allow better use of the forest without destroying it.
Furthermore, investment opportunities would be created. Küchli added that illegal logging would be limited and an equal distribution of forest resources would be ensured.
The Swiss were speaking during a side event at the conference to present a report, entitled Forests, Power and Human Beings, which was co-financed by Switzerland. A book on the politics of decentralisation was also unveiled.
Ministerial conference
The two-week UN forum, which is being attended by more than 300 government officials, including 40 ministers, is reviewing the effectiveness of work to save and protect forests. The forum has existed since 2000 and counts all UN countries as its members.
The meeting was opened on May 17 by Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai, who is also Kenya’s vice-minister of the environment.
Maathai called on government leaders to get their hands dirty and plant trees to stop the destruction and degradation of forests.
A report by the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, for the forum said that deforestation was continuing at an alarming rate despite government progress in implementing national forest policies.
It estimated that the deforestation rate during the 1990s was 14.6 million hectares per year, but 5.2 million hectares of new forest appeared through new planting and natural expansion.
According to the UNFF, the world’s forests currently cover one-quarter of the Earth’s land surface.
swissinfo with agencies
UN Forum on Forests is taking place in New York from 16-27 May.
Attending are 300 government officials, including 40 ministers.
The UN says the deforestation rate during the 1990s was 14.6 million hectares per year, but 5.2 million hectares of new forest appeared through new planting and natural expansion.
The UN’s Millennium Goals were approved by 191 nations, including Switzerland, in 2000. They are to be carried out by 2015.
Environmental sustainability is one of these goals.
Others include reducing extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting equality among the sexes, reducing infant mortality and combating diseases such as Aids.
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