Open-ended Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Panel on Forests

The Council therefore believes that the 4th CoP to the CBD should endorse a rolling three-year work programme on forest biological diversity which takes account of proposals for action of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, as endorsed by the UNGA Special Session, and is complementary to work underway in the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests ...[+++].

The Special Session of the General Assembly in June 1997 offers a crucial opportunity to establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee with a clear mandate and timeframe to negotiate a global forest convention which would be open for signature in the year 2000.

Thus Member States should endeavour to ensure sustainable forestry management on a national basis; 12. INTEND to give priority to a fast implementation and follow-up of the resolutions adopted at the Ministerial Conference on Protection of Forests in Europe (Helsinki, June 1993); 13. WELCOME the draft Council Regulation on operations to promote tropical forests, which will enable the Community to play a more active role within the field of tropical forestry on a sustainable basis and in particular promote Community policies within this field; 14. REAFFIRM the undertaking of the Community and its Member States to participate actively in the wo ...[+++]rk of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for an International Convention on Desertification which is due to be opened for signature in Paris in June 1994; 15. UNDERLINE the fact that the effective use of financial resources and their delivery are decisive for meeting the environmental goals set at the UNCED Conference and WELCOME that the Development Council on 25 May confirmed that following the global financial commitment of ECU 3 billion made in Rio, the Community and its Member States would provide an initial tranche of ECU 600 million in 1993 for specific projects and programmes in key Agenda 21 sectors; 16. ACKNOWLEDGE in this respect the important role of the international and regional financial institutions in enabling the developing countries to carry out the decisions of UNCED, and CALL UPON the international financial institutions to give urgent priority to the follow-up to UNCED; 17. They further ACCENTUATE the special importance of the Global Environment Facility and STRONGLY SUPPORT the current process of replenishment and the restructuring of the Facility before 31 December 1993 into an effective and transparent body with a balanced and equitable representation of all countries, in order to make it available as the permanent financial mechanism for the Climate Change and Biodiversity Conventions, an ...

Therefore the Council considers that, in addition to the Conventions agreed at Rio, a specific legally binding instrument on forests is needed to manage all aspects of this holistic approach (h) The European Union wholeheartedly supports the proposal to set up on open-ended intergovernmental panel on forests under the aegis of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development.