FAO FORESTRY

FAO Regional Forestry Commissions

Dialogue at the international level is an essential complement to the efforts of individual countries to develop appropriate forest policies, institutions and practices. FAO supports a number of statutory bodies specifically designed to provide neutral fora for discussion in the field of forestry. Among these are six regional forestry commissions, which meet every second year to advise on the formulation of forest policy and to review and coordinate its implementation at the regional level; to exchange information and, generally through special subsidiary bodies, advise on suitable practices and action with regard to technical problems; and to make appropriate recommendations to FAO and other organizations and institutions.

Thus far in 2000, sessions have been held for four of the regional commissions: the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission (Lusaka, Zambia, 22 to 24 March), the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (Noosaville, Queensland, Australia, 15 to 19 May), the North American Forestry Commission (Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, 12 to 16 June) and the Near East Forestry Commission (Teheran, Islamic Republic of Iran, 1 to 4 July). Short summaries of commission decisions and recommendations follow. Full reports of the commission sessions may be obtained through the Meetings Officer, Forestry Department, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100, Rome, Italy (e-mail: [email protected]).

Africa. The participants from 21 countries and international and national non-governmental organizations identified the problems of forest and bush fires as urgent and compelling and recognized the need for better sharing of the diversity of experience in dealing with this challenge. The commission affirmed the importance of the ongoing Forestry Outlook Study for Africa being conducted by FAO and highlighted the importance of linking the outputs of the study with efforts to develop national forest programmes in the region. The commission endorsed the report of its Working Party on Wildlife Management and National Parks and the working party's recommendations that increased support be given to training on management of wildlife and protected areas, and that the reports of the working party be widely circulated, including at the field level.

Asia and the Pacific. Participation at the session (delegates from 25 member countries, plus representatives from eight organizations) was the highest ever. The commission extended the mandate of its ad hoc Working Group on Sustainable Forest Management and recommended that the group give priority to three areas: support to the implementation of the Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia-Pacific; support to the development and implementation of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in the region; and assistance to member countries for the promotion of forest conservation in general and management of protected areas in particular. The commission endorsed a regional strategy for implementation of the regional harvesting code of practice, and endorsed a proposal to hold an international conference on reduced impact logging in Malaysia in January 2001. The commission endorsed a regional initiative for the development of criteria and indicators for the sustainable management of dry forests in Asia, and encouraged FAO to convene a workshop on this initiative in 2001. The commission considered a paper on the efficacy of removing natural forests from timber production as a strategy for conserving forests (see "FAO Forestry" section in Unasylva 202) and urged FAO to distribute the results of the study widely. The commission also supported efforts to ensure a greater degree of mutual recognition among certification schemes, and recommended that FAO provide increased information on this subject.

North America. The commission, attended by 26 participants from the three member countries and two observers, reviewed the activities of the commission's eight study groups (which engage actively in research and exchange activities between sessions); discussed in depth urban forestry, alien species harmful to North American forests, carbon sequestration in the North American context, and criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management at the field level.

Near East. The discussion of the delegates from 11 member countries of the commission centred mainly on the following items:

• the importance of data and information for the development of the forestry sector in the region;
  
• the relevance of the Teheran Process and the Teheran Declaration to countries with low forest cover in other regions, as well as the intention of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to establish a secretariat to promote the Teheran Process;
  
• the importance of non-wood forest products to the countries of the region;
  
• steps taken for further development and implementation of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management through the Near East Process;
  
• steps taken to develop national forest programmes and to revise forest policies within the region, with FAO support, and the need to continue these endeavours - including reiteration of the request for the appointment of an nfp regional advisor;
  
• the potential importance to forestry sector development of certain of the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol.
  

Biotechnology and the forestry sector

The area of biotechnology in agriculture has created many questions about the role of humans in modifying the basic structure of organisms in relation to food supplies and impacts on agricultural and wild-land ecosystems.

Developments in biotechnology in forestry are somewhat behind those in agriculture, but major advances are being made.

In collaboration with other partners, FAO recently organized an electronic forum on biotechnology in forestry, one of a series of two-month e-mail conferences being held to consider biotechnology in the crop, fisheries, forestry and animal sectors. These fora were designed to enable a wide range of parties, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, policy-makers and the general public, to discuss and exchange views and experiences about specific issues concerning biotechnologies in food and agriculture (including fisheries and forestry).

The forum "How appropriate are currently available biotechnologies for the forestry sector in developing countries" was held from 25 April to 29 June 2000. There were 34 contributions to the forestry e-mail forum. Ideas ranged from general comments to very detailed suppositions on the use of the new techniques, especially on genetically modified trees being developed for forestry. Several well-known foresters, biotechnologists, tree breeders and geneticists contributed. The following are some of the main points and conclusions that emerged from the exchanges:

• The three main fields of biotechnology being used or proposed for use in forestry (i.e. tissue culture, molecular genetics and use of genetically modified or transgenic trees) need to be considered only as additions to already well-established genetic resource management programmes for any species (i.e. advanced breeding and conservation activities already in place). They should not be considered replacements.
  
• The most controversial and complex technology was that related to the development and use of genetically modified trees. Developments in tissue culture and molecular genetics are largely extensions of currently acceptable and well-known practices in the field.
  
• Ownership issues related to information and germplasm derived from biotechnology have become increasingly complex because of the types of investors involved. Social and ethical issues revolving around the use of genetically modified trees, combined with economic implications for investors, create a complicated set of questions on which regulatory agencies, governments and industries will need to work together.
  
• Public information, awareness raising and education are needed before these technologies can be used routinely. Most if not all genetically modified trees will be used in high-investment plantations; however, complex ecological questions must be carefully analysed in relation to biosafety issues.
  
• Because of the long rotation ages of most forest trees species, and the length of time required to field-test genetically modified trees adequately, forest managers will have a much larger window of opportunity than their counterparts in agriculture for evaluating many of the complex biological, economic and social questions.
  

A final report of the e-mail conference is being prepared and will be posted on line at the conference site. Background documents, texts of individual contributions and links to references are available at www.fao.org/biotech/Conf2.htm