Global Environmental Forest Policies

This book provides a uniquely detailed and systematic comparison of environmental forest policies and enforcement in twenty countries worldwide, covering developed, transition and developing economies. The goal is to enhance global policy learning and promote well-informed and precisely-tuned policy solutions.

Provides an assessment of the international forest regime, in reponse to calls from many quarters, including the UN Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) and the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, as well as several NGOs. The focus is mainly on action taken by countries at the global level, in the framework of legally binding instruments and institutions. It builds on previous analyses of the international forest regime by looking beyond the legal mandates to begin exploring the actual performance of the components against their mandates. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) Proposals for Action as the point for departure, the effectiveness and impact of individual legal instruments and global instutions are analyzed, as is the potential for synergy between them.

This work provides an important, broad and legal critique and assessment of transnational trends, structures and innovations currently in use for managing forests.

leading to an overall decrease in the world's forest cover. The forests of Asia, in particular, have been strongly impacted. A number of initiatives have suggested forest policy reforms, and the need for the sustainable management of forests has been widely recognized and encouraged. But because implementation of reforms at the local level has been insufficient, it is imperative that local people begin to effectively participate in forest planning and management as well as in protected-area management. The Forest Conservation Project, launched in April 1998 by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), has carried out research activities on forest strategies, including policy analysis and on-site surveys. This book gives an overview of the project's research activities in its first three-year phase (April1998-March 2001). Since viable forest strategies work best when based on the involvement of local people, this report is addressed to stakeholders in the communities of the relevant countries, including local people and authorities, community-based organizations, experts, national agencies, and international institutions.

This collection of essays is the fruit of a special project within the General Research Programme of the Canadian Council on International Law. The volume constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of the status and treatment of forests as a subject of study in the field of international law. It is hoped that the publication and dissemination of these essays will stimulate not only further study and analysis, but also appropriate international and domestic policy initiatives that will contribute To The realization of a global forests convention. The common theme of the papers is the prospect of an International Forests Convention, but the diverse and complementary perspectives offered on this prominent dÉnouement of UNCED also contain useful general analyses independent of the UNCED agenda.

Three quarters of Canada’s forests are under provincial control, so provincial forest policies are crucial to long-term sustainability. By offering an up-to-date comparative scrutiny of forest policies, this book provides forest managers, policy-makers, scholars, and students with the information and concepts to critically examine Canada’s complex forest tenure systems. Looking at tenure, stumpage fees, and other forest practices, the authors assess how well different provincial schemes achieve the goals of sustainable forest management. They identify essential policy attributes that could be used to guide tenure reform, consider barriers that could prevent meaningful change, and offer much-needed practical guidance on overcoming these obstacles.

'An important and timely book' from the Foreword by Stanley Johnson 'A complete and absorbing history of a decade of intense international politics offers many insights for future negotiators of sustainable solutions' Stephen Bass, International Institute for Environment and Development 'Skillfully navigates the jungle of forest politics, leaving us in no doubt that the verbal commitment to save the world's forests has yet to be translated into action on the ground. The way forward must clearly lie in political commitments and international cooperation if forests are to continue to preserve life on Earth' Francis Sullivan, World Wide Fund for Nature Global deforestation and its attendant processes - including soil degradation, climate change and the loss of biological diversity - emerged as international political issues during the 1980s, prompting politicians to seek consensus on programmes and policies for the conservation and sustainable management of forests. Yet global initiatives have been bedevilled by tensions between the North and South and between governments, industry, local communities and indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, rates of deforestation in the tropics are increasing, and international political efforts are demonstrably failing. Forest Politics carefully traces the evolution of international cooperation on forests, from the inception of the controversial International Tropical Timber Organization and the failed Tropical Forestry Action Programme in the mid-1980s, to the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests in the mid-1990s. The book also provides a detailed analysis of the negotiating stances of the parties involved in the divisive negotiations that rook place prior to the 1992 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro and the equally factious negotiations for the International Tropical Timber Agreement of 1994. It provides a fascinating insight into the nature of such processes, illustrating the difficulties that arise when concepts such as 'global commons' come into conflict with national sovereignty. Complete with annexes of important political documents, and making extensive use of primary source material and interviews with participants. Forest Politics presents case studies of all the major forest negotiations over the last 13 years. It is an essential reference point for policy makers, environmental campaigners and students, and required reading for all those who care about the future of the world's forests. David Humphreys is Research Fellow in Global Environmental Change at the Open University. Originally published in 1996

Policy issues relating to forestry have been the subject of much debate in recent years, and many countries and international agencies have recently, or are currently in the process, of revising their policies for forestry. Much of this debate has implied that previous policies have failed or been much less successful than had been hoped. There is a tendency to think of policy as a matter for governments, but it is now more widely appreciated that all shareholders in the forestry sector have a legitimate interest in both the policy objectives and the means that will be used to implement it. This book is mainly concerned with the process of developing policy and the subsequent implementation, than in specific content, though many of the important issues which policies must address are discussed. It is based on a review of many case studies with which the author has been personally involved over the past 40 years.