Ministers agree on set of principles to save forests
RIO DE JANEIRO — Environment ministers at the Earth Summit have wrapped up a set of voluntary principles aimed at preserving the world’s dwindling forests, a goal that was a US priority at the conference.
The administration has not been able to obtain a commitment to turn these principles into a binding international convention, but the document leaves open the possibility of a new forest treaty.
This document describes these new forest principles as an "authoritative" statement ensuring that all countries have a right to make use of their forests to advance their economic development but that they should do so only "on a sustainable basis".
They thus chart a tortuous middle course between the desire of countries with tropical forests, such as Malaysia and Brazil, to assert their sovereignty over a valuable natural resource and the wish of most northern countries to define forests as a global asset.
Developed nations have criticized poor countries such as Brazil for destroying large tracts of tropical’ rainforest.
But developing nations argue that poor people need to cut trees for firewood and have resented efforts by rich nations to dictate terms.
US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William J. Reilly expressed some disappointment with the outcome on Friday, saying the principles were "not as strong as we would have liked".
But some other Western officials said the principles went further than they had expected.
"They don’t close off the possibility of a convention, and closing it off was the objective of Malaysia," said an official.
It was also suggested that the proposed new Sustainable Development Commission, which will monitor compliance with commitments made at the Earth Summit, could call for negotiations on a binding treaty when it reviews the way the world’s forests are being managed.
In negotiations, many developing countries said that the industrial world only valued tropical forests for the carbon dioxide they absorbed because this reduced the sacrifices the North must make to avert global warming. —NYT, Reuter.
Source : The Straits Times, June 14, 1992
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