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©FAO 1995
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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Introduction
Part 1
Evolution of forest policies and future directions
Evolving forest
policies
Forest policies and
sustainable development
Forests in national
policy
Forests, trade and
the environment
Forests and future
directions
Developments in
community forestry
Capacity
development
The international
dimensions
Part 2
Forests, economic development and the environment
Forest products and
services
Forests as a source
of national development
The economic
contributions of forests
World trade
patterns in forest products
The outlook for the
forestry sector in the economy
The state of forest
resources
Forests in the
tropical zone
Forests in the
temperate zone
Forest plantations
Forest management
for wood production
Forest management
for conservation
Annex 1
Definitions
Annex 2
European forests and forestry
Annex 3
An overview of the forestry situation in Latin America and the Caribbean
Forests are complex ecosystems capable of providing a wide range of economic, social
and environmental benefits. Forests provide products and services which contribute
directly to the well-being of people everywhere and are vital to our economies, our
environment and our daily lives. While forests and woodlands are now recognized as
essential for human life, their benefits and services are valued differently by different
people and different groups.
Moreover, the numerous roles that forests are expected to play in local, national and
global development continue to change over time. These shifting and sometimes conflicting
expectations create difficult policy challenges related to both the forest sector and
national development.
Concern about forestry's evolving roles was the subject of intense debate at the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in June 1992. UNCED highlighted
forestry development and environmental issues by developing a set of ‘forest
principles’, devoting a chapter of its programme of action, Agenda 21, to combating
deforestation (Chapter 11) and focusing on the importance of non-wood functions of forests
in the biological diversity and climate change conventions.
A number of countries have launched specific international initiatives to follow up on
UNCED forestry recommendations. This broad consensus on principles of sustainable forest
management represents the first-ever commitment of responsibilities beyond national
boundaries. Turning these principles into practice, however, presents a more formidable
task.
At its 12th Session in March 1995, the Committee on Forestry plans to review progress
in the implementation of Agenda 21 and to discuss the major forestry issues to be
considered by the Commission on Sustainable Development at its third session in April
1995. The purpose of this statement on the state of the world's forests is to summarize
the main areas of factual information and present some of the important policy issues
facing the international community.
This presentation brings together information from the Global Forest Resources
Assessment 1990, the FAO Yearbook of Forest Products, the 1994 State of Food
and Agriculture special chapter, ‘Forest Development and Policy Dilemmas’,
the Forestry Chapter of Agriculture Towards 2010 and The Challenge of
Sustainable Forest Management. These FAO reports analyse the state of forest resources
and the role of forests in sustainable development, and provide background information for
FAO's report to the Secretariat of the Commission on Sustainable Development. This
statement on the state of the world's forests presents a synthesis of this background
information. It also includes two regional reviews, Europe and Latin America and the
Caribbean, which were prepared in the context of recent FAO regional forestry meetings.
Reviews of forestry in other regions will be included in future editions.
For further information, please contact:
Forestry Department
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00100 Rome, Italy
Fax: (39-6) 5225 5137
Telex: 625852 FAO I |
