Three years ago, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. UNCED, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (see Forest Genetic Resources Information no20, 1992), and forestry issues were brought to the attention of a wider public than ever before. Since then the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) has been established by the General Assembly of the United Nations to monitor follow-up to the recommendations and agreements reached at UNCED. The UNCED will hold its Third Session in April 1995. In this meeting, progress at national and international levels will be reviewed and discussed, with special reference to Chapters 10–15 of the Action Programme of UNCED, Agenda 21, viz.: Integrated Approach to the Planning and Management of Land Resources; Combating Deforestation; Combating Desertification and Drought; Sustainable Mountain Development; Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development; and Conservation of Biological Diversity. All of these Chapters include concerns for the conservation, development and sustainable use of forest genetic resources.
The post-UNCED era has been charcterized by many initiatives in the forestry field. Some of these intiatives have concentrated on the development of guidelines for country-level reporting on forestry issues, while others have focussed on the development of regional and eco-regional criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, on which to base national status and progress reports. Yet others have addressed key issues in the global forests policy dialogue with a view to identifying common ground and of promoting concerted action. At the international level, the UN “Task Managers” (FAO for Chapters 10,11,13,14; and UNEP for Chapters 12, 15) have developed intensive agendas to promote action and to help ensure compatibility of the various initiatives underway. In FAO, such efforts are leading up to the forthcoming meeting of the Committee on Forestry (March 1995), which will be complemented by an FAO/NGO Dialogue and a Ministerial Level Conference. This latter meeting is aimed at elaborating a consolidated, common message to help draw the attention of the Third Session of the UNCSD to issues considered of maximum, global importance in the fields of competence of the Ministers concerned. Needless to say, that message must be strong, unified and clear if it is to have the desired effect on policies, worldwide.
The present issue of Forest Genetic Resources reports on action at national, regional and international levels in the forest genetic resources field. Such action provides some of the basic elements needed to strengthen environmentally, technically, socially and economically sound forestry programmes, aimed at enhancing the contribution of the forestry sector in over-all national development programmes for human subsistence, better standards of living and the maintenance of a sound, balanced and dynamically changing biosphere.
We hope that all of our readers will find items of interest in the present issue, which includes brief articles and notes from all tropical regions and some information considered to be of general, scientific and technical interest. Your ideas and opinions, and proposals for future focus and coverage, would be welcome.
Our newsletter depends on contributions from you, the readers. Please send us brief articles and notes on your activities. Inputs should, generally, not exceed 2,000 words, and they should be of general, global interest. The Secretariat maintains the right to edit and shorten inputs accepted for publication. Correspondence should be addressed to:
Chief, Forest Resources Development Service
Forest Resources Division, Forestry Department, FAO
Via delle Terme di Caracalla, I-00100 Rome, Italy
(Fax: (39)(6) 5225.5137)
