General Considerations
Forest Genetic Resources in the International Forestry Dialogue
Policy Tools and Mechanisms
The greatest number of plant species occurs in tropical areas, often in developing countries with limited financial, institutional and human resources. Funding for research and development in the field of genetic resources is, however, available primarily in developed countries. There is a growing awareness that responsibilities in genetic conservation, as well as benefits derived from their use, must be shared in a fair and equitable manner. Thus issues related to access and transfer of genetic resources, transfer of technologies and funds, and property rights and the fair sharing of benefits are increasingly debated (Santos and Lewontin 1997).
While national programmes form the building blocks of genetic conservation, collaboration at the regional and international levels is desirable to help ensure that activities in individual countries and among regions are complementary, compatible and mutually supportive. Institutional sharing of responsibilities, considering comparative advantages and funding possibilities of institutions in different countries in any one region, is an important consideration. International collaboration can help streamline action among regions, draw attention to conservation issues of global concern which might be overlooked or neglected, and propose remedial action for urgent problems.
FAO’s programmes fully recognize the multi-disciplinary nature of the challenge, while also recognizing the need to specify and carefully target complementary activities implemented within a broader framework (see FAO 1999i,j and Annex 1 for FAO related activities; and Palmberg-Lerche 1994 and Annex 2 for information and references to work of some other international agencies and institutions).
The importance of conserving forest biological diversity was highlighted at the policy level at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992. The subsequent ratification of the legally binding Convention on Biological Diversity has major relevance to forest genetic resources conservation. CBD adopted a work programme for forest biological diversity in 1998 which is currently undergoing further development, and which will be discussed in some detail at the 6th Session of the Conference of Parties in 2002. The broader programme makes reference to forest genetic resources and integration of related concerns both in the conservation of biological diversity and in sustainable forest management. FAO is closely involved in the development of this programme.
In the intergovernmental policy dialogue on forests that followed UNCED, neither the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) nor the subsequent Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) focused specifically on forest genetic resources in their programmes of work. However, related issues regarding the management and sustainable development of all types of forests were discussed in general terms.
Since 1995, participants in the high-level, informal Interagency Task Force on Forests, ITFF (Chaired by FAO, and including representatives of the International Tropical Timber Organization, ITTO; the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD; the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN-DESA; the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP; the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP; the World Bank; and the Centre for International Forestry Research, CIFOR), have collaborated in promoting issues related i.a. to forest biological diversity and forest genetic resources. This dialogue is likely to continue under the successor arrangements to the IFF (the UN Forum on Forests, UNFF). Other international partner institutions in the forest genetic resources field include, among others, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO). The last-mentioned organization recently established an interdisciplinary task force on the management and conservation of forest genetic resources, which reported on its work and findings to the XXI IUFRO World Congress (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 2000). Bilateral agencies as well as Development Banks such as the World Bank, and mechanisms such as the Global Environment Facility, provide financial support to a number of conservation activities.
Figure 1. Management of genetic resources of forest trees and shrubs: concepts and components
(Palmberg-Lerche 1998)
Although the need for specific focus on the management of forest genetic resources has received increasing attention over the past 30 years, there is to date no forestry equivalent to the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which focuses on agricultural crop species. The plan, adopted by the Fourth International Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources in Leipzig, Germany in June 1996, makes reference to wild relatives of cultivated plants, often found in forest ecosystems, and to domesticated tree crops (fruit trees, rubber, etc.), but explicitly excludes forest genetic resources (FAO 1996c). FAO established a Panel of Experts on Forest Gene Resources in 1968. The panel regularly provides advice to FAO, and indirectly to the world community, on programmes and priorities in the field of forest genetic resources. Its work complements that of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (formerly the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources), whose mandate was expanded in 1995 to cover “all components of biodiversity of relevance to food and agriculture”, including - in addition to agriculture in the strict sense - domestic animal, forest and fisheries genetic resources. The International Undertaking on plant genetic resources overseen by the Commission is presently under revision by signatory countries to harmonize the Undertaking and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
In line with recommendations of the Panel of Experts on Forest Gene Resources, FAO has developed the Global Information System on Forest Genetic Resources, REFORGEN (Box 1). Many other international, regional and national organizations and institutions have established databases and information systems on forest and tree genetic resources. The challenge will be to ensure systematic verification and regular up-dating of information housed in REFORGEN. It will also be important to ensure continued compatibility between REFORGEN and other relevant databases and to establish links between them for easy retrieval and use (Hansen 1996, FAO 1999e, Hald 2000). REFORGEN is linked with, and supports, the FAO Global Forest Resources Information System (FAO 1999h).
