1. The FAO Advisory Committee on Paper and Wood Products held its forty-third session in Rome on 25-26 April 2002. Mr Luis Deslandes chaired the session, which was attended by 18 members and 42 other participants from 24 countries and 5 international organizations (Annex 1).
2. Mr Luis Deslandes, Chief Executive Officer, Sociedad Portuguesa de Papel S.A., opened the session and welcomed the participants.
3. On behalf of Dr Diouf, Director-General of FAO, Dr Hosny El-Lakany, Assistant Director-General of the Forestry Department, welcomed the members of the Committee and all the participants. He welcomed Mr. Avrim Lazar (Canada) who had recently been nominated for the Committee, expressed the Organization's gratitude to the members of the Committee, recognized the importance of participants' contributions to the activities of the Committee in terms of time and expertise and acknowledged the support and guidance of the Committee in the activities of the Forestry Department related to the forest industry sector. He recalled the uniqueness of the Committee and its important role as a liaison between the private sector and FAO.
4. The Chairman proposed that although the panel was originally intended to address only item 10 (Northwest Russia cluster), it should also address item 9 (illegal logging). The amended agenda (Annex 2) was thus adopted.
5. This agenda item was intended to compare the respective views of FAO and industry on the role and goals of the organization. It was thus divided into two parts and followed by a discussion to explain and reconcile eventual differences.
6. FAO presented its mission and goals and how its objectives fit within these goals. FAO's specific strategy to reach these objectives, general vision of forestry and own role were reviewed. FAO's six year objectives include:
• to strengthen the information and databases on forest and tree resources;
• to support national forestry policies and programmes;
• to ensure the technical foundation for sustainable forest resources conservation and development and forest product development and utilization;
• to maintain the health and condition of forests;
• to enhance countries' institutional, legal and financial frameworks for the forestry sector;
• to facilitate regional and international discussion and collaboration on forest policy and technical issues;
• to build partnerships with other groups working in forestry;
• to enhance social and economic equity and improve human well-being through participatory forestry and sustainable management of forests and trees in marginal areas.
7. Industry views FAO as an organization with high credibility in the forest products sector, and as such should be the main reference body for forestry matters in the UN system. More specifically, industry sees as FAO's role:
• to take account of the interests of the forest and paper industry in deliberations and to act as a guide for different stakeholders;
• to be the main reference body for forestry matters within the UN system and strengthen its role as co-ordinator in the forestry framework;
• to be more straightforward in its messages and more active in opinion-shaping;
• to play a more active role on mutual recognition and climate change related to forestry;
• to give guidance to industry on how to relate to the UN system in general and more particularly on: Rio +10, XII World Forestry Congress, United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF);
• to act as a facilitator between various regions/countries of the world and to facilitate dialogue between developed and developing countries;
• to improve efficiency in statistics by co-operating with industry.
8. The Committee emphasized that investment strategies in new forest products complexes, especially pulp and paper, should be based on economics and not only on social considerations such as job creation. While development policies are already more difficult to formulate in developing countries than in developed countries, the structural changes currently taking place in the industry will make such planning even more difficult in the coming years. The Committee queried whether there was room in FAO's plan to accommodate the changes taking place in the sector.
9. The Committee was reminded that one of FAO's roles is to act as a neutral forum in which contacts can be developed between NGOs, industry, government and other institutions. The possibility of acting as a facilitator between industry and the main NGO groups (such as IUCN, WRI, WWF) is a part of that role. The Committee was informed that FAO has organized various meetings where industry and NGO groups were invited to participate on topics such as confidence building on certification, illegal logging, and definitions.
10. The Committee sees FAO as having an important role in helping industry in developing countries meet emerging policy standards by providing technical support on such issues as demand for certification and calculations to meet national climate change commitments.
11. FAO is recognized as an international forestry organization with high credibility because of its neutrality towards all parties involved in forestry. To continue playing an important neutral role, the organization must retain its impartiality in spite of requests by various groups for FAO support for their policies and programmes.
12. Mr Wulf Killmann, Director, Forest Products Division, FAO, reviewed the activities undertaken by FAO, and their relevance to the recommendations made by the Committee at its previous session. The recommendations and respective activities were concentrated in four main areas:
i) Mitigation of global climate change: the post of senior forestry officer (forestry and climate change) was filled late in 2001. FAO has been contacted by UNFCCC to collaborate on the technical assessment of national communications on carbon. An expert meeting on harmonizing forest-related definitions used by various stakeholders was organized in January 2002.
ii) Mutual recognition of certification schemes: FAO continued its close involvement in certification both at a forest management level and in relation to trade; participated in meetings and working groups; supported efforts to achieve a greater degree of comparability and equivalency; and acknowledged both IFIR's work and CEPI's comparative matrix of forest certification schemes as valuable activities in encouraging greater comparability of different schemes.
iii) Wood in competition with substitutes: the report "Environmental and energy balances of wood products and substitutes" has been published. It presents a scientific analysis of the environmental advantages of selected wood products compared with different substitutes such as plastic, steel, concrete and aluminium, based on a life-cycle assessment of each product. The Committee was invited to discuss how to promote the results of this publication.
iv) Working group on recovered paper: due to international events it was impossible to organize meetings for the group and to achieve progress on this activity. The Committee was asked to provide guidance on how to proceed on this activity.
13. The Committee was informed that the IFFPA has now been formally established as the International Council on Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA) with 19 members from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden and USA. Its first chairman is Mr Moore (USA). ICFPA aims to serve as a forum for dialogue between members and to develop common positions on issues of interest to the sector.
14. ICFPA asked for FAO's support in obtaining accreditation to UN agencies so it can participate in international meetings. The Council would like to be active in the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and to inform the world about what industry has done on the subject of sustainable development.
15. To ensure stronger private sector participation in the international forest dialogue, ICFPA would like to participate in the network to the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF). CPF is a group of international agencies within UNFF that is chaired by FAO. Further discussion within CPF will be required to review eventual participation by ICFPA. ICFPA is asking FAO's support to participate in the forthcoming UNFF intersessional expert meeting in New Zealand reviewing "the role of planted forests in sustainable forestry management". As a co-organiser of the XII World Forestry Congress FAO looks forward to working with industry in using this forum to celebrate progress and recognize best practices applied by industry.
16. ICFPA members adopted a declaration on illegal logging and wishes for FAO's endorsement as well as for an increase in FAO's efforts to combat illegal activities in forestry.
17. ICFPA recognises FAO's role as both a neutral forum and a facilitator and hopes FAO can provide a means of communication with NGOs.
18. Many countries are active in establishing processes to formulate national certification schemes and national standards based on widely accepted criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. In view of the diversity of certification systems the International Forest Industry Roundtable (IFIR) proposes the establishment of an international mutual recognition framework for forest certification. It would be a reciprocal and non-discriminatory arrangement under which one certification system recognizes and accepts other certification systems as being equivalent in intent, outcomes and process.
19. Product labelling is another approach to the issue of mutual recognition. Some companies, in Sweden for example, use a product labelling system which allows them to accept products certified by any system as long as they match the company's own standards.
20. Forests have been included under the Kyoto Protocol (KP) because deforestation is seen as a source of emissions and forests constitute a low cost sink opportunity. The New Zealand Forestry Sector views the exclusion of non-Annex 1 countries as a distortion of international trade for fibre as well as for energy.
The choice of 1990 as a baseline year distorts domestic competition and the exclusion of harvested wood products is inconsistent with other carbon accounting. KP resulted in increases in energy and transport costs and distorted fibre value compared with competitors, mostly in developing countries. This resulted in the New Zealand forest industry being less internationally competitive. There are serious questions whether forests should be included in the KP for Commitment Period 2.
21. The European Union, under the Kyoto Protocol, agreed to an eight percent reduction in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 2012 compared to 1990, with different targets between the member countries. The European Climate Change Program foresees action through ten directives and measures including emissions trading, doubling the share of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) between 1994 and 2010, use of bio-fuels in transport, reduction in emissions of fluorinated gases and revision of the GHG emissions monitoring mechanism. It is anticipated that these directives, if applied, will result in loss of competitiveness for industry.
22. The position of the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) is that the negotiated agreement's targets should be the baseline for emission trading, specific targets should be established for growing industries, stronger consideration should be given to earlier action, emission trading and energy taxation should be seen as complimentary, companies should be allowed to trade internally and a test phase should take place between 2005 and 2007.
23. Non-carbon dioxide gases contribute 40 to 45 percent to climate change and there may be cheaper mitigation options for non-carbon dioxide gases than for carbon dioxide. From a carbon equivalent point of view post-harvest gas emissions (i.e. nitrogen) may be quite high 30 years after harvesting.
24. Regarding mutual recognition:
Noting that mutual recognition remains an important industry need, and the role that FAO played over the past 12 months related to achieving a greater degree of comparability and equivalence between systems, the Committee urged FAO to strengthen its role as a facilitator of discussions on mutual recognition. Furthermore, FAO should support the development of national Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM) certification schemes in countries where they do not currently exist. The national initiatives should be developed in the context of the IFIR proposed criteria and indicators for comparability and equivalence of certification schemes.
25. Regarding climate change:
The Committee asked FAO to play an active role in the IPCC technical work on definitions, measurements and reporting for issues such as carbon sequestration, sinks and Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM). It urged FAO to include forest industry expertise in this technical development. It asked FAO to support implementation of the International Calculation Tools for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Monitoring, especially in developing countries.
26. Regarding sustainable development:
As the UN organization responsible for forestry and with particular concern for sustainable development, FAO was asked to highlight the key and positive role of forestry in poverty eradication and sustainable development, particularly in rural areas. It was recommended that FAO should work with industry experts to communicate results of the FAO report regarding the environmental advantages of wood products compared to competing materials derived from non-renewable raw materials.
27. ICFPA and FAO should cooperate to put an exhibit at the XII WFC on best practices in sustainable forestry, showing examples of what industry, people and community have done for forestry.
28. Illegal acts in forestry include unauthorized activities on public and private lands such as occupation of land, harvesting of wood or non-wood forest products. These illegal acts have economic, environmental and social consequences. Many of these acts, which involve corruption and illegal activities, are not limited to developing countries. The size of the problem is illustrated by the fact that illegal logging represents between 35 and 90 percent of all logging in many countries. For example, a 2001 UN study indicated that the value of European Union imports of illegal tropical timber was estimated at €2.4 billion in 2000.
29. The main factors contributing to forest crimes have been identified as faulty policies, insufficient or inadequate knowledge, excessive discretionary power and limited capacity of public forest administration and enforcement agencies. All parties, including government, NGOs, industry and international organizations, are undertaking substantial efforts to address the causes of illegal activities.
30. Northwest Russia comprises eight regions and two republics, namely the regions of St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Novgorod, Pskov, Murmansk, Archangel and Vologda, and the republics of Komi and Karelia. Its timber resources amount to 8 063 million cubic metres with an annual harvest of 35-40 million cubic metres. The area offers relatively good transport infrastructure. The forest products industry accounts for 11.5 percent of the total industrial production in Northwest Russia. However, in terms of export revenues, the industry is much more important. Its share of export income is nearly 20 percent of the area's total. Together with energy, fuels and metals, timber and forest products bring most of Northwest Russia's export revenues.
31. A panel was assembled to discuss the two previous agenda items with the purpose of exchanging views among panel members and participants and providing a basis for any recommendations the committee may want to make to FAO about its activities.
32. Illegal logging is a symptom of malfunctions in society, especially lack of proper governance, policy and political framework. Government policies should stop subsidizing non-forest competing products. Certification and international treaties could contribute to a reduction in illegal logging. The first step in addressing this issue would be for FAO to analyse how the components of illegal logging are affecting industry, socio-economic development and the environment.
33. In the Russian Federation there are already some large pulp and paper mills under foreign ownership. The government's current policy is to promote local processing of wood products while maintaining openness to foreign investment. From a foreign investor point of view the main issues are legislation and the selection of the right national partner. A company that invested in the Russian Federation in a small furniture manufacturing plant (for export) and retail operations based its decision on the size of the Russian domestic market, the availability of raw materials, the competence of the work force and decided that overall potential benefits outweighed risks. The main obstacles to investing in Russia remain the lack of political framework, the antiquated forest legislation and the low profile of the forestry sector
34. Evolution in the eastern part of Europe over the past ten years has generally been disappointing while in certain countries and sub-regions simply dramatic. Paper consumption and production of the region today is about 30 percent lower than in the late 1980s and world share in paper production has shrunk from eight to four percent. However, since 1997, the production and consumption of the region have been increasing. The majority of pulp and paper mills have been privatized. While many paper machines and pulp mills have been closed, not a single new one has been installed. Production of the remaining mills has grown significantly through rebuilds and elimination of bottlenecks. Productivity has increased significantly, environmental loads have been reduced and product quality has been approaching world market standards.
35. Development in the area has been very diverse. The eastern part of Europe can be divided into sub-regions, which differ significantly from each other (Russian Federation; the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania; central-eastern Europe: Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia; south-eastern Europe: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Romania, Ukraine). Paper consumption in the Russian Federation and in south-eastern Europe is 22 and 15 kilograms per capita respectively, while production is only 45 percent of the figure achieved during 1988-89. Average consumption in the Baltic States is 42 kilograms per capita, which is the same as a decade ago. The most positive results are found in central-eastern Europe where consumption is 70 kilograms per capita, 130 percent of the consumption level 10 years ago. An outstanding development can be witnessed in Poland where consumption has grown from 36 to 63 kilograms, i.e. by 75 percent, per capita per annum. Thus the central-eastern European countries appear to have the potential to approach Western Europe. Unfortunately it is expected that south-eastern Europe will fall behind significantly.
36. Though in many countries governments have plans to favour foreign investment (through tax holidays and subsidiaries), there is no sign of this in industrial policy addressing specifically the forestry and forest industries sector. In some cases forestry and forest industries depend on different ministries and/or planning agencies which results in different promotion attitudes and resources.
37. Recommendations related to FAO's role:
• to act as a neutral forum and a facilitator to assist dialogue between industry and NGOs;
• to take account of the interests of the forest and paper industries in its deliberations and to act as a forum for the different stakeholders;
• to be the main reference body for forestry matters within the UN system and strengthen its role as co-ordinator in the forest sector;
• to be more straightforward in its messages and more active in opinion-shaping;
• to play a more active role on mutual recognition and climate change related to forestry aspects;
• to act as a facilitator between various regions/countries of the world and to facilitate the dialogue between developed and developing countries;
• to improve efficiency in statistics by co-operation with industry.
FAO accepted all these recommendations which fit within its mandate and on which it is already acting.
38. Recommendations related to FAO's role and the newly formed International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA):
• to support the accreditation of ICFPA to UN Agencies;
• to assist ICFPA to participate in:
• the World Summit on Sustainable Development;
• the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF)- network;
• the forthcoming UNFF-intersessional meeting in New Zealand reviewing the role of planted forests in sustainable forestry management;
• the XII World Forestry Congress, co-operating with industry in using this forum to celebrate progress and recognize best practices applied by industry, showing examples of what industry, people and community have done for forestry.
• to endorse ICFPA's declaration on illegal logging (see annex XXX) and increase efforts to combat illegal activities and assist countries to improve sustainable forestry management standards and practices.
39. FAO congratulated industry on the newly formed International Council on Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA) and will support its accreditation to the UN system. Once accredited, FAO will support its inclusion in the CPF network. FAO looks forward to co-operating with industry on the occasion of the XII World Forestry Congress, especially in celebrating progress and recognizing best practices applied by industry. ICFPA should inform FAO as soon as possible of the composition of its secretariat to facilitate communications between the two organizations, especially regarding international initiatives and meetings related to forestry. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is a country driven process and both industry and FAO must go through the countries. FAO, with other organizations such as International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and NGOs, is currently providing, and intends to continue providing, support to countries in fighting illegal logging. It endorses the statement presented. FAO proposed to develop partnerships with the private sector in developing strategies to fight illegal activities such as transparency and log tracking systems.
40. Recommendations related to FAO's specific activities:
Mutual recognition: FAO to strengthen its role as a facilitator of discussions on mutual recognition and to support the development of national SFM certification schemes in countries where they do not currently exist. The national initiatives should be developed within the context of the IFIR proposed criteria and indicators for comparability and equivalence of certification schemes.
FAO will strengthen its role as a facilitator of discussions on mutual recognition. It will support the development of national SFM certification schemes in countries where they do not currently exist, mostly through the National Forestry Programs. However, this is country driven and FAO must receive a request for assistance from the country before it can take any action.
Climate change: FAO to play an active role in the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) technical work on definitions, measurements and reporting for issues such as carbon sequestration, sinks and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM); FAO to include forest industry expertise in this technical development; FAO to support implementation of the International Calculation Tools for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Monitoring, especially in developing countries.
FAO will continue playing an active role in the IPCC technical work as listed above and will include industry expertise in this field. FAO will review the document: "International calculation tools for GHG emissions monitoring", and decide how it fits within its mandate before reporting to the Committee.
Sustainable Development: FAO to highlight the key and positive role of forestry in poverty eradication and sustainable development, with special emphasis on rural areas, particularly in the WSSD and UNFF context; FAO to work with industry experts to communicate results of the FAO report regarding the environmental advantages of wood products compared to competing materials derived from non-renewable raw materials.
FAO, as task manager for two tasks under Agenda 21, is already actively involved in the role of forestry for sustainable development. Furthermore, activities related to poverty allocation and food security are major objectives of the forestry department. FAO will summarize the document on the competitive advantages of wood as a position paper and will prepare a press release on the subject.
41. Statistics on recovered paper.
There is a need for improved statistics on recovered paper. It was recommended that work on standardization of classification and definitions start on a few selected grades. Mr Szikla (with support from ICFPA) accepted to act as co-ordinator for this work. Based on the results of this initial work, the process could be extended to other grades. Outlook studies for raw materials, including pulp and recovered paper, could follow the same pattern.
42. The Committee nominated Messrs James Griffiths and Boris Tabacof respectively as chairman and vice-chairman of the Committee for the next term starting immediately.
The Chairman congratulated them both and wished them best success on their assignment. He thanked all members of the Committee and their advisers for their excellent support during his tenure, crediting them for the achievements of the last two years. He thanked FAO and the staff involved in the Committee's work for their assistance during his chairmanship. The Director, Forest Products Division, on behalf of FAO, thanked the Chairman and expressed the organization's appreciation for the Committee's achievements during his term of office.
43. Next year's session will take place in Mexico tentatively on May 6 and 7, 2003. The specific location and the exact dates will be confirmed by the secretariat after review with the Committee member from Mexico. It was recommended that an interim meeting take place within six months to review follow-up of recommendations and to prepare the agenda for the 44th session, possibly during the CEPI meeting on 27-28 November 2002 in Brussels, Belgium.
44. There was no other business on the agenda.
45. The Chairman summarized the discussions and the recommendations presented to FAO by the Committee. He thanked FAO for its contribution and positive attitude towards the Committee's recommendations. The Director, Forest Products Division, thanked all members of the Committee and their advisers for attending this session and reiterated the importance of the Committee and its recommendations to the work of the Organization. The Chairman declared the 43rd session closed.
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Australia Belinda Robinson |
Brazil Mario Higino N. M. Leonel |
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Canada (Member) Avrim D. Lazar |
Chile Eladio Susaeta Saenz de San Pedro
(Member) |
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Colombia Alfonso Ocampo |
Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) Marie Arwidson |
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Czech Republic Jaroslav Tauc |
ECE Ed Pepke |
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European Commission Kim Henrick Holmström
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Finland Hannu Hernesniemi |
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France Jean-Paul Franiatte (Member) |
Germany Klaus Windhagen (Member) |
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Ghana Fosuaba A. Mensah Banahene (Member) |
Hungary |
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India N.S. Sadawarte (Member) |
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Sten Nilsson |
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Italy Armando Cafiero |
Malaysia |
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Japan Tamio Akiyama |
Mexico Juan Lavalle Legaspi |
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Morocco M'Hammed Mezzour (Member) |
New Zealand |
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Norway Truls Bruu |
Poland Wiktorian Tarnawski |
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Portugal Luis Alberto Deslandes (Member) |
Russian Federation Edouard Akim (Member) Dimitry Dedov |
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South Africa John Hunt |
Sweden Jan Remröd (Member) |
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Switzerland Gudmund Vollbrecht |
Thailand Somboon Chuchawal (Member) |
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United Kingdom Sheam Satkuru-Granzella |
United States of America Arnoldo Contreras-Hermosilla Irene W. Meister W. Henson Moore (Member) Maureen R. Smith |
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Uruguay Lorenzo Balerio |
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) M. Hosny El-Lakany Lennart Ljungman Wulf Killmann |
1. Opening of the session and welcome address |