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New World Bank Forest Alliance
Andrew Bennett, Chair of CIFOR’s Board of Trustees, addresses the Seventh Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests, New York, late April 2007. Photo courtesy UNFF.
The World Bank is currently developing a new Global Forest Alliance to tackle many of the challenges facing the world’s forest sector, according to the World Bank’s Environment Director, Warren Evans, in an address to the recent 7th Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF7).
During a panel discussion with members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF),* an affiliate organization of the UNFF, North said the Alliance aims to achieve challenging but achievable goals by 2015 in poverty reduction, sustainable production-forest management, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.
A World Bank-administered Forest Carbon Partnerships Facility will support the Alliance in overseeing actions and projects that reduce forest-related emissions and generate payments to developing countries related for sustainable forest management.
Andrew Bennett, Chair of CIFOR’s Board of Trustees, said many countries with globally significant forests face many forest management challenges. Although carbon trading might help improve the resources available to governments wishing to better manage such forests, it remains unclear how the financial flows from carbon trading will benefit the hundreds of millions of the world’s rural poor who depend on forests.
Mr. Bennet said collaborative partnerships between forest research and development institutions could be very useful in this area, but they needed a clear agenda. The sustainability of institutions was tied up with the issue of income and revenue.
Such partnerships must have a well-defined purpose, recognize their differences, build trust and operate according to a clear client statement. Mr. Bennett said that after 20 years of worrying about forests, the current focus on forests and climate change suggests it is now possible for different groups of people to work together and deliver results.
Others to address the World Bank’s proposal of establishing a Global Forest Alliance included Mark Zimsky from the Global Environment Facility Council, Jan Heino from the FAO Forestry Department and present and past senior figures with the International Tropical Timber Council, the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Union of Forest Research Organizations.
Further information:
* The Collaborative Partnership is made up of 14 major forest-related organizations, institutions and convention secretariats, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the World Conservation Union and CIFOR – the Center for International Forestry Research. It was established in 2001 to support the work of the Forum on Forests and enhance cooperation and coordination on forest issues through technical assistance to countries, mobilizing resources and strengthening political support for sustainable forest management.
Article adapted from UNFF materials.
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