United Nations: Ten years on and what have you done?
It is now almost 10 years since the Rio Earth Summit. Some 180 countries have committed to the protect the diversity of the world's plants and animals as well as its human cultures. But in those 10 years, what have the United Nations really done for the world's remaining ancient forests and the millions of the plant and animal species and people that depend upon them?
HAVE THE WORLD GOVERNMENTS …
Ensured that sufficient areas of ancient forest have been designated for conservation? NO.
- "It has been particularly difficult to obtain protected-area status for southern Siberia's large forest ecosystems. This is owing to opposition by forest service agencies and other local government bodies." Vselvod Stepanitskii, head of Russia's system of natural reserves, 1998.
- "Protected areas are fast becoming islands of dying biodiversity…. Many animals need the ability to migrate in order to survive. Limited reserve areas cannot fill this need." Jeffrey McNeely, Chief Scientist, IUCN, May 2001.
Provided adequate protection for existing national parks? NO.
- A recent survey carried out for WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and the World Bank concluded that only three percent of protected areas within Russia are well managed.
- In Cameroon, thanks to an EU-funded road, the Dja reserve, a World Heritage site, is being rapidly destroyed by large-scale industrial logging and poaching of gorillas and elephants.
Provided subsidies that promote ecologically responsible forest management? NO.
- Many European countries contribute to the destruction of the world's remaining ancient forests through aid programmes and subsidies for projects such as for road building in Central Africa, which numerous scientific studies have shown results in serious harm to the tropical forest and wildlife of the region.
- In Canada, subsidies to the forestry industry amounting to an estimated US$2-2.7 billion every year are believed to contribute to the destruction of ancient forests.
Controlled deforestation? NO.
- "In absolute terms, it appears that more tropical forest was lost in the 1990s than in the 1980s," World Resources Institute, 2001.
- "If forest clearing continues at 1990s rates, the forests will lose many of their remaining species by the middle of the 21st century," Jeffrey McNeely, May 2001.
Controlled the logging industry? NO.
- "At the international level, the availability of cheap, illegally felled logs from Indonesia has led to a huge decrease in international plywood prices. As a result, plywood producers committed to legal, sustainably managed log supplies have been unable to compete and are effectively becoming excluded from international markets," Tropical Timbers, January 2000.
- It is now generally accepted that illegal logging has become the norm rather than the exception in the Brazilian Amazon. The government's own investigations, published in 1997, estimate that 80 percent of the logs cut are illegal in some way.
Implemented ecologically responsible procurement policies? NO.
- In March 2000, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair stated "We have already promised that as a government we will only purchase timber from legal and sustainable sources." Today the UK is still Europe's largest importer of tropical plywood from Brazil where up to 80 percent of wood production is illegal.
Provided proper funding for conservation? No.
- Wordwide, perverse subsidies that encourage over-exploitation and destruction of the natural environment total between US$950 billion and $1,450 billion every year. This compares to only US$1,450 million spent each year on reforestation, environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity itself receives ony one tenth of this, that's 0.01% of that spent on environmentally destructive subsidies.
So are they protecting the world's forest and the life that depends upon it? NO.
- "Today's species extinction rate is comparable in scale to the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago," Russell Mittermeier, President, Conservation International.
- "The number of species threatened with extinction far outstrips available conservation resources, and the situation looks set to become rapidly worse," Norman Myers, 2000.
YOUR government can choose NOW to SAVE or DELETE the world's ancient forests.
Greenpeace demands to world leaders
The UN Ancient Forest Summit will take place in April 2002 in the Hague.
At this summit, ministers, politicians and government represenatives will decide on the future of the world's remaining ancient forests.
It is time for them to live up to the commitments they made in Rio 10 years ago. Time for them to stop talking and start acting now to SAVE, not DELETE, the world's remaining ancient forests and the plants, animals and human cultures that depend upon them.
The world's remaining ancient forests will not be saved with words alone.
Greenpeace is seeking a commitment from world leaders at the Ancient Forest Summit to:
Stop the destruction by stopping any further industrial activities in areas of intact ancient forests, until proper land-use plans based on ecological analyses have been agreed;
Clean up the timber trade by ensuring that timber is produced and traded in a legal and ecologically responsible way
Come up with the money by providing a total of at least US$ 15 billion each year to cover the costs of forest conservation and alternative economic development.
Can we afford it?
Leading scientists estimate that between US$950 billion and $1,450 billion are spent each year on 'perverse' subsidies, subsidies that keep prices of resources such as timber well below realistic market values, encouraging over-exploitation and destruction of the natural environment.
If reform of these subsidies were linked to investment in environmental protection, just a small shift in government spending could have a major impact on conservation objectives.
The cost of global biodiversity conservation is well within our means, the only real obstacle is the lack of political will to change patterns of government spending in favour of conservation.
World governments must choose now to SAVE or DELETE the world's remaining ancient forests.