Background Document
Costa Rica, 18 - 22 January, 1999

Europe

The European regional meeting held in Bonn in October included a range of NGOs, government officials, academic researchers and forestry consultants. The two-day meeting considered 10 case studies and a synthesis paper, all prepared especially for the meeting, and drew on these insights to help them draw their conclusions.

European forests are not in a healthy state. The forests have been reduced to about a third of their original extent and old growth forests have been hugely depleted. What forests remain have been heavily modified and simplified. Two thirds of the continent's trees suffer some degree of defoliation from airborne pollution

Generalisation about forests in Europe is very difficult. Factors leading to forest loss in one context may have the opposite effect in another context. Local and national problem-solving approaches were thus emphasised and relatively little emphasis was given to international solutions, which many considered were likely to be too blunt to be adequately adjusted to local needs.

Forests are much more than just stands of trees. They are complex ecosystems with integral associations of flora and fauna and long-term resident human communities, and they perform a wide variety of functions. Loss of any one of these elements or functions should be treated as forest loss.

For the purposes of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests, the IPF's broad definition of underlying causes of forest loss should be accepted rather than the more limited approach adopted by CIFOR, so as not to give undue emphasis to economic factors.

Land and forest tenure regimes have had a powerful influence over the way forests have been managed and destroyed. Community ownership - as an intermediate form of ownership between State ownership and private ownership - holds out potential benefits for many parts of Europe but should not be imposed at the expense of central regulations. An adequate policy, legislative, institutional enabling framework is required to ensure effective community forest management, including resources and structures for effective community participation in decision-making.

Forest policies have tended to give priority to production, giving second place to protection functions and third place to social functions. Forests have suffered from the 'wake theory' of forest management. National forest policies need to be reformed to give equal weight to social, environmental and economic values.

Powerful interest groups dominate policy-making. More open, transparent and participatory forms of government are required to counter these interests. Guidelines for decision-making processes should be developed to guide the evolution of accountable public institutions dealing with the private sector.

Forest services may need reforms and retraining to effect these new approaches. In transition countries, in particular, institutional capacity needs to be strengthened to cope with new pressures on forests from market forces and tenure reforms.

The short-termism of politicians poses an obstacle to the inclusion of environmental concerns in forest-related decisions. The materialist aspirations of society reinforce this tendency. Solutions include: greater public education, especially about the underlying causes of forest loss; improved media treatment of the issue; greater independence for forest research; electoral reforms.

Markets have very diverse impacts on forests, sometimes beneficial, sometimes destructive. Rising consumer demand is however placing an unsustainable burden on forests and needs to be lessened if forest loss is to be curbed. Solutions include: the removal of perverse subsidies; the imposition of 'ecotaxes'; stricter regulations, including restrictions or tarriff barriers to trade in destructively produced goods; green accounting (incorporating externalities into costs). Some of these solutions will require changes in international law (trade agreements). Voluntary regulation and consumer choice should be encouraged but should not be relied on to effect major transformations in consumption and trade.

European measures to counter air pollution have been ineffective as, overall, they have failed to address the underlying causes of such emissions. Policy and legislative reforms are required to reform transport policies (reduce NO_x), clean up industrial emissions (reduce SO₂) and promote organic farming (less nitrates). Transition countries will require additional economic assistance to effect these changes.

Through aid, trade and foreign investment, western Europe is a major force contributing to forest loss in the rest of the world, including in eastern Europe. Aid to developing countries is causing forest loss both directly and indirectly, by failing to address underlying causes in recipient countries or even reinforcing them. Reforms in aid programmes are needed. Aid projects should seek to be more beneficiary-driven. More attention needs to be given to social issues and vulnerable sectors, especially women and indigenous peoples. Aid should become more programmatic and less project focused. Strategic impact assessments should be required. There should be more experience sharing of 'best practice' among donors. Donor coordination needs to be enhanced.

Most of these proposed actions can be undertaken at the local, national and a few at the regional level. The meeting carefully reviewed the IPF's action proposals and highlighted some that could be especially important in addressing underlying causes. By themselves, however, the proposed actions are inadequate.

In particular, to date intergovernmental negotiations on forests have failed to address a number of key issues:

• more effective measures are needed to change the balance of power over forests; measures are needed to reduce consumption;
• aid programmes need to be reformed;
• reforms in international law are needed to permit regulation of trade and investment on environmental and social grounds.

There are no signs that these issues are being considered by those advocating a convention on forests. It seems that the key issues that need to be addressed at the international level are considered to lie outside the present scope of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests.

Summaries of the Case Studies

1. Western Europe: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Georgina Green, Examining the Underlying Causes of Woodland Loss from Road-Building: a case study of the Newbury bypass, UK.

The UK is one of the least forested countries of Europe. While forests were once the predominant vegetation, natural woodland now covers only 2.5% of the surface area of the country, with plantations, mainly of non-native species covering an additional 7.5% (2.5 m. ha.). In the 50 years since the end of the second world war, the country lost 45% of its remaining ancient and semi-natural woodlands. Current policy now aims to reverse this trend. Ownership is mixed with 35% State owned, 20% by public voluntary bodies, 20% by farmers and 35% by other private owners. All forestry operations are subject to government regulation and control.

The case study focuses on the recent destruction of biologically significant woodlands to make way for a road bypass around the town of Newbury in central southern England. Although the affected woodlands had previously been recognised as County Wildlife Sites and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and despite national and European laws aimed at promoting wildlife conservation, these defences proved inadequate to protect the woodlands. The case study helps explain why, nationally, some 300 SSSIs are destroyed or damaged every year.

The road-building project became a national and international controversy and was hotly contested through public hearings, legal challenges, press campaigns, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary lobbying and direct actions to frustrate construction. In the process the anatomy of the social and economic forces within England for and against road-building were clearly exposed to view.

Using the diagnostic framework to help shape her analysis, the author highlights a number of underlying causes of forest loss. She notes the relatively weak legislation protecting sites of biological importance and the rare designation of woodlands as protected areas. This weak legislation is an expression of the effective power of landowners and the land-owning lobby and the priority government policy accords to economic development, which combine to limit the will and authority of government conservation bodies.

Government transport policy over the past eighteen years of Conservative Party rule has been dominated by facilitating roads and road transport and the progressive erosion of rail services and other means of public transport. Rising public demand for transport has thus found few alternatives to road travel. Public preference for car use has also been encouraged by fiscal systems that front-load costs on car ownership rather than car use. The government's policy was driven by a powerful road and car-building lobby. It aimed to meet an ever-increasing demand for transport, which is related to an over-riding commitment to the promotion of global trade and the consolidation of industries, increasing living standards of the population and town planning.

The materialistic values in society, combined with the short-term nature of political power in an electoral democracy has also encouraged politicians to put arguments about job creation and rising living standards above concerns about the environment and health. On the other hand, the existence of an unelected chamber of parliament exacerbates the problem of people in power or with powerful connections influencing decision-making processes to suit their personal or group interests. This can be seen in the blocking of legislation that would have given better protection to important sites for nature conservation.

Despite the generally materialistic values in society, the problems of traffic congestion and pollution that many people were facing in their daily lives, and the failure of government road-building policy to solve these problems, led more and more people to question the continued destruction of the countryside for an ultimately flawed and unsustainable policy. Whilst the local community in and around Newbury was deeply divided over the desirability of the bypass (which was ultimately built), public opinion nationally, together with mounting expert opinion and incontrovertible evidence on the ground, has led to a switch in emphasis in UK transport policy, which is now beginning to give more attention to alternatives to the car. However, in general, the widespread priority given to economic interests in all spheres of life remains. A notable aspect of the study is its demonstration of the complete irrelevance of the national Forestry Commission to this process of forest loss.

2. Scandinavia: Sweden
Karin Lindahl, Forests and Forestry in Jokkmokk Municipality: a case study contributing to the discussion of underlying cause leading to deforestation and forest degradation of the world's forests.

Sweden is still predominantly covered with trees. Forests have played a central role in the country's development and in its transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. Ever since 8,000 to 10,000 years ago human populations in Sweden have depended on forests but the intensive industrial-scale use of forests is relatively recent and, in the northern part of the country, developed over the past one hundred and fifty years. The author traces four broad phases of forest use from a first phase of 'local use', through an extractive phase of 'timber mining', through a third phase of reforestation to a final phase of 'plantation forestry' using intensive silvicultural methods. Today less than 5% of the productive forest land retains old growth forests: 'Sweden is a country full of trees but with very few forests'.

Since the 14th century, national policies towards forest lands have alternated between those promoting forest clearance and frontier settlement and those prioritising timber production and the maintenance of tree cover. In the early 19th century the government promoted vigorous agrarian development, forest colonisation and granted forest lands to settlers prepared to migrate from the central regions. However, since the late 19th century, forestry has been prioritised. Since the second world war the Social Democrat governments have encouraged an industrial model of development, which encourages large efficient industries and the Keynesian redistribution of wealth. This has stimulated migration into the cities and urban centres and helped concentrate forest industries in the hands of fewer and fewer large companies.

Forestry is an export-oriented industry - servicing a substantial share of the global market in furniture, sawn timber, pulp and paper products - but one in which processing capacity far exceeds national production levels, meaning that Sweden is a net importer of timber. The country thus depends both on secure access to unprocessed timber from abroad and on an intensive use of national forest lands.

The case study focuses on the 2 million ha. municipality of Jokkmokk in the north of the country an area largely covered by boreal forests in which scotch pine, Norway spruce, aspen, birch and willow predominate. Originally inhabited almost solely by the indigenous, reindeer-herding Sami people, the area was administratively annexed from the early 17th century, while extensive settlement by ethnic Swedes only took off with the phase of land grants in the early 18th. Mining and hydropower development, still economically important in the area, are now in decline. Intensive timber extraction only developed over the past 150 years and is now the dominant use on forested land.

Forest ownership became heavily concentrated in the hands of the major logging companies, sometimes through shady methods, and focused on the extraction of pines for saw mills. In the 20th century the focus of extraction switched to other species for the emerging paper and pulp industry and forestry became increasingly mechanised. Today most timbering is in the fourth phase of forest exploitation and involves the clearcutting of even aged stands, often planted on mechanically scarified soils. However, there are remnants of old growth forests of exceptionally high conservation value in the Jokkmokk area. The domination of the municipal economy by forestry has contributed to the decline of other activities such as farming, and cattle-raising, although mechanisation and improved transport means that scarcely more people are employed in forestry-related work than in reindeer-herding. Recently, as a result of national and local campaigns by environmentalists, the main timber companies have reduced their more damaging activities such as old growth logging, herbicide-spraying, deep plowing and wetland ditching, and have accepted Forestry Stewardship Council standards of forest management. Sami rights of forest access have been promoted as a consequence. The big companies and other forest owners, however, remain committed to plantation forestry and resist more radical demands by environmentalists to cease clear-cutting, soil scarification and allow for more natural forest regeneration.

The author singles out consumer demand and industrialisation growth models, and the way national forest policies have been defined by them, as the driving forces underlying forest degradation in Jokkmokk and suggests that the relative lack of local resistance to the imposed changes has stemmed from the local peoples' early dependency on employment in industries and their acceptance of the Social Democrats' development model, which provided material benefits at the expense of a loss of local control. New measures to increase local community powers in decision-making, including access to land, and to legally protect biodiversity and other forest values are needed, as well as a reduction in global demand for wood especially pulp and paper products, to make forest use more socially and environmentally sustainable.

3. The Baltic States: Estonia
Rein Ahas, Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Estonia: a local level case study in Polva County.

Tree cover still extends over about half of Estonia, a small country of 2 million hectares. No less than 96.4% of this area is managed as forest land of which 45.6% remains under State ownership, 8.3% is under private ownership and the remaining 46% is (WHAT?). Over 90% of these forests are made up of pine, spruce and birch trees. The country is in the process of a major social and political upheaval as a result of the restoration of independence and the ending of soviet rule.

The forest product industries are major players in the national economy and account for 17.5% of exports by value. As the country struggles to achieve a positive balance of payments, and is promoting new industries, tourism and exploitation of oil shale, there is strong pressure from government planners to industrialise forestry. This pressure is especially strong as farming is not considered economic in relation to the global economy.

Forest policy is Estonia has built on the original German school of scientific forestry, which favours clean ordered forests, the clearing out of all dead wood and the burning of organic matter, with a preference for introduced species. In previous eras too, forest loss in Estonia has been linked to times of rapid industrial and political change in the country. During the 18th century many forests were cleared for ship-building and in the 19th century as a fuel-wood for industrialised vodka distillation. After the First World War land reforms led to extensive forest clearance for agriculture and at the beginning of the soviet era much forest was felled to provide housing for the poor. However forest cover increased substantially during the later soviet era, as small farms were discouraged and agriculture collectivised.

The recent and rapid transition to a capitalist democracy has brought many changes. Institutional and legal reforms to the forest sector, while recognised as necessary, have not kept pace with actual changes in forest management, land ownership and entrepreneurial activities. The case study focuses attention on Polva County in Eastern Estonia where timber felling has hugely increased in recent years and illegal logging is becoming a serious problem. Nationally harvesting levels increased by 37% between 1996 and 1997.

Underlying this unsustainable pressure on forests lie a number of factors including new export markets for pulpwood, sawlogs and processed timbers, new national markets for wood products in the building industry and the increasing local use of wood fuel due to the withdrawal of subsidies for other fuels. A major cause of forest loss results from the fact that forests are in the process of being reallocated to private ownership under the still ongoing land reform, which typically results in small forest lots of 2-10 ha. in private ownership. The State forestry administration has not been able to keep up with the huge increase in legal documentation which accompanies this process of restitution, much less adequately oversee forest management.

The changing ownership regimes and transition to a free market economy have increased pressure on forests in a number of ways. Rural poverty has increased, especially among unemployed people laid off from disbanded collective farms. At the same time rising consumerist values have also increased the felt need for cash incomes. 'Forestry has become a way of surviving in the countryside and for collecting start up capital' notes the author, and has become a seasonal form of generating a cash income during winter months when farms are less active. Some people have been acquiring forest lands for short-term profit seeking, clearing the land of timber and then selling it again as farming land.

A growing problem has been the increase in illegal logging, especially on lands with unclear or absentee owners, which has been facilitated by extensive corruption and rent-seeking behaviour by government officials who use their positions to run illegal businesses and has been fomented by criminal gangs practising tax deception, bribery and intimidatory tactics including the use of guns. The new breed of politicians, who are mainly interested in garnering a populist vote and profiteering from personal business opportunities, show little concern for environmental objectives and have very short time horizons. The sector also faces a growing threat from very large Scandinavian companies which seek access to Estonian forests as a reserve to see them through hard times and treat Estonia as a springboard for gaining access to Russian forests further east.

A number of solutions are identified to counter these destructive forces including: public awareness raising; enhanced legislation; giving greater protection to other forest values; strengthened institutional enforcement capacity; revised taxation and subsidy systems.

4. Central Europe: Austria
Michael Pregernig and Gerhard Weiss, Forest Policy in Austria: Policy Making by the Sector for the Sector.

Forests gradually spread to cover almost the whole of the mountainous country of Austria with the withdrawal of ice from 13,000 years ago. Neolithic farmers began clearance of forests in lowland arable areas from about 6000 BP but it was not until the Middle Ages that uplands began to be cleared and alpine pastures established which lowered the tree line. Today, 47% (3.9 m. ha.) of the country is covered with trees. Of this about 3% is old growth forest, 22% semi-natural, 40% 'moderately altered', 27% 'altered' and 8% artificial (plantations). Conifers, the naturally dominant species in the mountainous areas, have also replaced broad-leaved species in lowland areas and constitute 70% of the tree cover.

In prehistoric times, forests were used by communities but in the Middle Ages forests were arrogated to the Crown with the assertion of the feudal political order and enfeoffed to aristocrats. Accessible forests were heavily exploited to service emerging mining industries and saltworks. With the revolution of 1848, however, forest property rights were clearly defined, giving ownership partly to the State, partly to aristocrats, farmers local co-operatives and villages and towns. The forest law of 1852 enforced the preservation of all forest land and sustainable timber production. The present pattern of forest ownership strongly influences forest policy. Only 1% of the 214,000 forest owners hold areas of more than 200 ha. and 65% of owners hold lots of less than 5 ha., with 80% of forests being in private hands and 20% owned by the State.

Forestry is not a major sector of the national economy, contributing only about 3.8% of GDP. In terms of exports the sector is more significant with forest products comprising 10% by value, second only to tourism as a source of foreign exchange. A unique aspect of Austria is its corporatist political order, which strives for consensus-based decision-making among statutory interest organisations established by public law and with obligatory membership. Based on notions of social partnership, shared values and mutually compatible goals, the interest groups, represented through their 'Chambers', strive to find compromise political arrangements acceptable to all and often review and amend draft legislation before it reaches parliament.

Within this structure, the interests of forest-owners are represented by the Agriculture Chamber, which is lobbied by large well-established voluntary associations of forest-owners. Environmentalists' concerns have no such formal representation among the policy-making elite.

Forest clearance is not a serious problem in Austria and is rarely allowed, except in peri-urban areas. Forest degradation, on the other hand, is a matter of considerable public concern. Although fears in the 1980s of widespread forest die-back from industrial pollution proved to be exaggerated, foliage and tree-crown damage from pollutants, notably sulphur and nitrogen oxides, is widespread. The enactment of quite strict anti-pollution legislation has reduced national sulphur emissions by some 75% but overall levels have not been reduced much. Today 93% of sulphur pollutants come across Austria's borders especially from Eastern Europe and even with financial aid it will be some time before abatement measures can be introduced in these areas. Increasing vehicle use still causes high levels of nitrogen oxides pollution. In the context of a strong national policy that promotes economic growth and an economy that is presently struggling to meet these objectives, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has vetoed stronger national legislation on air pollution.

Overbrowsing and bark-peeling by deer populations, kept artificially high with imported feed, is another major cause of forest degradation. Proposals to reduce deer populations have been strongly resisted by sport hunters, who are organised into a powerful lobby and many of whom are also forest owners. Hunting is a very popular, prestige sport in Austria and general public sympathy for deer, with their 'Bambi' image, also translates into a strong sentiment against measures to reduce deer numbers. Environmentalists have been nervous of challenging these public perceptions.

Forest management objectives prioritise timber production and favour extensive even-age stands of monocultures, especially conifers. Conservationists argue that the results are increased pest damage, biodiversity loss and a reduction in soil quality. The same emphasis on forest production and the cosy relations between foresters and forest owners also explain why protection forests, essential to stabilise hillsides from landslides and avalanches, are poorly maintained despite government subsidies. Forestry officials are reluctant to upset their social partners, the forest owners.

In addition to the way the political economy of forest management militates against policies that prioritise forest protection, ecological functions and biodiversity values, the authors single out several other factors as underlying causes of forest degradation, including the way new research findings are not translated into revised forestry practice because of institutional rivalry between the forest administration and forest research institutes. Finally the authors discuss a number of possible measures to promote better forest management. They assess the expected impacts and chances of implementation of actions such as stricter regulations, enhanced social awareness of the importance of forests, closer engagement by environmentalists in the corporatist decision-making process, eco-taxes, forest certification, financial incentives and a more participatory style of politics to erode present-day clientelism.

5. Eastern Europe I: Hungary
Ivan Gyulai, The Underlying Causes of Forest Degradation in Hungary, with a special emphasis on the privatisation of forest areas.

Hungary once enjoyed forest cover over some 85% of the national territory, an area that was progressively reduced, due principally to clearance for agriculture, to 12% by the 1930s. Since the second world war, natural forest cover has continued to decline and existing forests continue to be degraded, although the total area under tree cover has increased and now covers some 19% of the surface area of the country. Hungary presents a paradox, where afforestation can be seen as an underlying cause of forest loss.

Natural forest degradation is resulting from a large number of factors. Major underlying causes include agricultural intensification in the lowlands, serviced by intensive water management regimes, which has resulted in lower water tables creating difficult growing conditions for native tree species. Air pollution, especially from industries and transboundary sources, has also proven especially damaging to native species. Among the direct causes of forest degradation the author highlights the impact of production-oriented forest management systems, which give little priority to biodiversity or ecological values and which have also degraded forests. Mechanisation of land preparation and harvesting has damaged soils and reduced biological diversity, and has also reduced employment by substituting machines for more labour-intensive and nature-friendly management techniques. Species and genetic diversity has been reduced in the selection of seedlings for replanting, with an evident shift in favour of non-native species.

To facilitate harvests, forest structure has been simplified to create even-aged stands suitable for clearcutting, the preferred method of harvest. Official policy has led to rising populations of game, which have also interfered with natural regeneration. Forests are increasingly fragmented by infrastructural developments, notably road-building to allow forest management and timber harvesting.

The paper focuses on the additional underlying causes of forest degradation resulting from the political transition from communism to capitalism. Under a state-sponsored land reform, large areas of the national territory have become privately owned, as land was made available to those who had been discriminated against by the previous regime and by giving out vouchers to others considered worthy, redeemable at public auctions of State assets. Some 40% of the country's forests have thus passed into private hands, mostly as very small lots averaging 1.3 hectares. Lack of clarity - about how these areas will be managed and who exactly now owns what - means that about half this area, 20% of the country's forests, are now unmanaged. Forest governance has been overwhelmed by this process of privatisation. By creating an open-access situation, the vulnerability of these forests has been much increased to illegal harvesting and other forms of theft, although in inaccessible areas the absence of management may provide a respite to native species. Even in areas where new ownership is clear, forest quality is increasingly at risk as the current forest owners have little capital, little knowledge of forest management, little concern for ecological values and have acquired forests for their speculative potential or out of short-term profit motives. Many owners are absentee landlords. An increase in the planting of non-native species in these areas is already discernible.

In the presentation and discussion of the paper, the author noted that market and financial pressures were the principle underlying causes of forest loss in Hungary today. In the context of a huge foreign debt, a serious national economic crisis and political and institutional instability, people were giving priority to short-term personal economic considerations not long term environmental security. New markets and the new consumerist values were intensifying this pressure. Even non-timber forest products use, particularly by 'gypsies', which was once more or less sustainable and oriented to supplying local markets, is now directed to supplying foreign markets and is becoming unsustainable. The neglect of the long-term is also evidenced by the lack of use of the reforestation fund. In sum, in Hungary today, 'people want a wealthy society and not a healthy society.'

6. Eastern Europe II: Romania
Ion Barbu, Sustainable Development of Forestry in Romania

Forests once covered around three quarters of Romania's surface area. Tree cover has now been reduced, mainly by clearance for agriculture, to some 27% (6.3 m. ha.), made up of about 2% coniferous plantations and 25% natural forests and managed woodlands. Half this area is currently classified as protected forests. Tree cover is especially reduced in the plains (7%) but remains more extensive in the hills and mountains, where soils are less attractive to agriculture and the important function of forests in stabilising soils and hydrological cycles is emphasised by official policy. Forest conservation in the water-catchments of hydro-electric plants is stressed.

Romania has lost some 5 million hectares of its forests in the last few centuries, 3 million of which were lost between 1829-1922 and of which about half were lost due to privatisation at the end of World War 1. Further details of the causes of this loss are not given. Currently the State retains control of about half of the country's forested areas and the rest are already in private ownership, although subject to the same regulations regarding forest management as State forests. There exists a controversy at present about the wisdom of further privatisations, which are being called for by local populations, politicians and the local administration, as part of the economic transition to a free market system. Some privatisation has already occurred and this has contributed to a decline in production.

Direct pressure on forests today comes from extended droughts, industrial pollution, excessive pesticide use, over-grazing and damage by excess concentrations of game. Coniferous species have been increasingly planted at the expense of beech and oak over the last 60 years and now constitute 30% of tree cover. Recently the government has adopted a revised target of having 27% of forests under conifers (down from the previous governments target of 40% by 2010). The policy of simplifying forests for production has made forests increasingly vulnerable to damage by pests, wind and snow damage.

The paper provides a good deal of information about Romanian forest types, forest policy and forest management systems but does not yet provide a cross-sectoral analysis of Romanian forestry or elaborate on the underlying causes of forest degradation and loss.

7. Southern Europe: Portugal
Paulo Canaveira, Ana Maria Almeida, Joao Sousa Teixeira, R. Oliveira, Forests and People in the Iberian Peninsula.

The Iberian Peninsula, once predominantly covered with oak and mixed broadleaf forests, Mediterranean pine forests and riparian forests, has been inhabited for at least 5,000 years. Clear signs of extensive deforestation in Portugal date back to 3000 BC with the spread of farming and pastures. By 2000 BC most of the coastal oak forests had been cleared for agriculture and over the next 3,000 years pressure on forests gradually moved up the hillsides into the hinterland, due to the extensive use of fire to clear land for farms and pastures. This process continued during the era of Arab occupation, while at the same time managed woodlands of oak species (montados) were established. By the early Middle Ages the last old growth forest of the country were removed. Pressure on woodlands to provide timber for ship-building was sustained from the late 13th century onwards as Portugal emerged as a major global maritime power. At the same time, large areas of the hinterland were arrogated to the crown as hunting reserves.

Modern forestry methods only began to be introduced to the country in 1865 with the original aims of checking the loss of remaining broadleaf forests, expanding the areas under montados and establishing plantations of maritime pine. Tree cover expanded, notably because farmers found the cultivation of cork oaks more profitable than wheat due to the overseas markets for cork. However, in the 1930s forest loss intensified as a result of a national policy to promote wheat production, which led to the clearance of woodlands and the overexploitation of land with serious consequences for the soils. In the 1950s the dictatorship tried to reverse this policy with an imposed programme of afforestation on communal lands. The process was resisted by local communities which objected to the 'expropriation' of their lands, the loss of pastures and the repressive behaviour of forestry officials. Incendiarism became a growing problem and by the time the dictatorship was restored in 1975 the forestry service was seriously discredited. That year witnessed extensive fires especially in communal areas. A land reform initiated in 1976 restored communal lands to the villages and began to break up the properties of large landowners. During the 1980s, the forestry service with World Bank support pursued policies of afforestation mainly with pine and Eucalyptus species but again met local resistance. However, since joining the EC in 1986 a new forestry approach has been adopted which prioritises the restoration of mixed woodlands and closer collaboration with private forest owners.

The case study provides a detailed account of the process of forest decline in the district of Mertola in SE Portugal, an arid area 15% of which today has tree cover mainly in the form of montados. The district has a typically skewed pattern of land ownership. Large private land-holdings, which dominate the more fertile southern lowlands, are almost devoid of tree cover. In the north, more land is held communally by villages, which have intensive agricultural plots around each village surrounded by extensive montados and brushwood areas used for fuelwood, beekeeping, minor forest products use and grazing. Since the 1850s, rising populations, partly resulting from people being attracted to mines, placed these montados under increasing pressure and this was exacerbated during the years of the 'wheat campaign', when tree cover was reduced to 8.5% of the district. The 1976 land reform led to a further brief burst of over-intensive farming and forest clearance as farmers adopted chemical fertilisers and built up their herds. However, since the population peaked in the 1950s, numbers have declined by 70% as people have moved to the cities.

Local NGOs used the courts effectively to block the planting of Eucalyptus in the 1980s. Much of the district has now been designated as the Guadiana River Natural Park where mixed forests are again being promoted, but natural forest regeneration is, paradoxically, being hampered by an EC regulation (Reg/CEE 2080) aimed at promoting the re-establishment of forest cover. To qualify for the subsidy, farmers are clearing abandoned fields undergoing natural forest regeneration and replanting with introduced seedlings. To redress these problems the authors advocate local environmental education; more effective national and regional landuse planning and revised EC policies which are better adjusted to local needs. The study authors highlight the importance of rural NGOs and a new national policy which promotes multiple forest use, biodiversity values and socially sensitive planning.

Nationally, the main challenge facing Portugal's forests comes from wildfires. Fire risk has been increased by: the simplification of landscapes; the spread of tree monocultures (plantations); the decline of rural populations and the consequent lack of human use of understorey vegetation; and the purposeful setting of fires by villagers to extend pastures and to protest against imposed land-use changes and plantations. Increasingly fires are also being set by land speculators trying to cash in on a housing boom. To address this challenge the government recognises the problem posed by an oversimplification of forests and has adopted a policy of diversifying landscapes and species in planted forests, building forest roads to allow ready access by fire-fighters, the judicious clearance of scrub while trying not to affect biodiversity, and public education.

8. European trade
Nigel Dudley, Trade as an Underlying Cause of Forest Loss and Degradation.

Global consumption and the trade that services it has become the main motor of the global economy. With the most wealthy 20% of the population consuming 85% of the world's resources, levels of consumption continue to climb, despite economists assurances that economic growth need not mean greater resource use. Global per capita consumption has climbed steadily by 3% per year for the last 25 years, a trend that is projected to continue. Encouraging consumption is a fundamental objective of economic ministries, and industry, commerce and the media work together to promote it.

Although extraction of resources may not make economic sense if the long term costs and benefits of all goods and services are factored in, the global political economy is structured to exclude such externalities. Personal profit is thus allowed to override the wider interest and the influence of the wealthy minority that results is far-reaching in determining natural resource management policies. Markets are volatile and often ephemeral, discouraging long term investments in prudent resource use and encouraging short term planning and 'grab it and run' tactics.

Global trade is resulting in an increasing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a tiny minority. Transnational corporations are increasingly important players in the global economy and now control 70% of global trade. The top 300 companies now own 25% of the world's productive assets. They wield enormous influence in relation to national governments, particularly in small and relatively impoverished developing countries.

Timber extraction is considered by some to be the main cause of forest loss in boreal and temperate forests and in tropical frontier forests. Even though the international trade in timber and other wood products constitutes only 2% of all wood extracted from forests, the global trade in quality timbers and, increasingly, in paper-pulp are major forces opening up forests to other interests. Despite the small volume of timber entering international trade, this has a disproportionate large impact on those forests that are richest in biodiversity -and thus also often thoiseMany other commodities traded on the world market are also implicated in forest loss. Minerals, oil, shrimps and cocoa are examples of commodities that are often extracted or grown in areas cleared of forests. Yet many other cash crops cultivated outside forests also lead to forest loss by displacing peasant farmers from the best agricultural land and forcing them into the forests in search of a livelihood. Land concentration and the creation of wealthy elites with undue power and influence in national economies are often driven by international markets in cash crops.

The economic policies currently in vogue encourage deregulation and increasing private sector investment in export oriented production. International legal regimes developed under the GATT and the WTO actually penalise countries from restricting trade on environmental grounds as they are considered 'non-tariff barriers' to free trade. This has made regulation of trade to prevent forest destruction difficult and has further increased the power and influence of the trade lobby. As regulatory capacity has been weakened, while private sector penetration has increased, there have been growing opportunities for malpractice, such as political manipulation, bribery and transfer pricing. Yet developing countries find it hard to resist the power of these interests as they have grown dependent on further trade and investment to keep their economies afloat.

The author proposes a number of solutions to restrain the worst effects of trade. Subsidies and fiscal regimes need to be reformed so that destructive practices are no longer rewarded and good natural resource management is encouraged instead. Measures should be introduced to internalise costs so that resource extraction is made socially and environmentally beneficial. National regulatory systems and institutional capacity needs to be reformed, at least to prevent corruption and illegal extraction. An international regulatory body also needs to be established to oversee the enforcement of binding regulations controlling the operations of the national and international timber trade. At the same time, voluntary regulation by companies should be encouraged through the adoption of codes of conduct, certification and corporate strategies that include social and environmental concerns. More information and more participatory systems of government and decision-making are also needed.

9. Private Sector
Simon Counsell, Breaking the Iron Triangle: the Influence of the Private Sector in Forest Policy.

The paper focuses specifically on the ways the private sector has sought to influence forest policies at both national and international levels. Control and ownership of forests around the world has made a rapid transition from communities to States to the private sector. Today 50 of the largest forest products corporations between them control some 140 million hectares of forests, an area the size of the total forest estate of Europe.

These interests have sought to eliminate competition from small-scale industries and promote further concentration of forest resources in their hands. They have also sought to influence many different aspects of forest policy including those related to downstream processing, pollution control, health and safety regulations, employment legislation, land use legislation and endangered species laws. They have sought to shape policies related to forest concession systems, forest management standards, trade policy, fiscal arrangements, subsidy regimes, research priorities, training schemes, education programmes, including public education and land tenure systems. Their common objectives in doing so have been to eliminate competition, reduce costs, capture subsidies and tax benefits and reduce the influence of adversaries such as environmental groups.

To these ends they have targeted official agencies of all kinds, politicians and the general public. At the international level the private sector has targeted the WTO and has pushed heavily for free trade regimes. Others, such as British timber importers, have been very active in lobbying for the exclusion of certain species from gaining listing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. According to some analysts. so strong has their influence become at the International Tropical Timber Organisation that the process has been described as one of self-regulation, whereby the industry sets the standards by which it should itself be judged. The strong promotion of a Global Forest Convention by the Canadian forest products industries is seen as another example of this attempt to define international standards so that they favour the interests of industry rather than social and environmental values.

Nationally the private sector has sought similar ends including through securing advantageous subsidies and capturing support from aid agencies. A startlingly high proportion of forestry research is also funded by the private sector, which has the effect of both setting research priorities and influencing the findings of researchers so they favour industry interests. Research is seen as especially important by the private sector as a way of influencing public perceptions about the role of forests and forest industries. Accordingly the industry also invests massively in public relations 'selling' a simplified message that forests are just trees. A major objective of industry public relations is to stimulate total demand.

Influence is exerted by numerous means. Where regulations are lacking industry practice tends to become the accepted norm. To shape policies the private sector: finances political parties; establishes clientelistic relations with politicians; offers bribes and other benefits to forest services and personnel, senior government officials including Cabinet Ministers and members of Parliament. In extreme cases in countries heavily dependent on forest product exports, companies have even threatened to halt production to demonstrate their opposition to proposed policy changes.

The author examines in particular detail the way the private sector has sought to influence the standards set for the European Union's Ecolabelling scheme. By persistent lobbying and leverage, including by foreign diplomats, the industry succeeded in getting the EU to adopt lower standards for eco-labels than had been proposed on technical grounds. The author concludes that: "in terms of policies that promote forest conservation and sustainable management, the influence of the private sector is generally pernicious. Specific legislation and general policy frameworks, as well as public perception of forests that help to shape these policies, have been strongly influenced by the private sector. Companies have largely sought policies which maximise short-medium term profits, eradicate competition and promote economies of scale. Any engagement of the private sector in public policy with a putative aim of promoting long-term sustainability and public benefits is only of very recent occurrence".

The solutions to this problem lie in changing the mechanism by which forest policies are developed. This requires:

* recognising the current processes by which such influence is exerted
* promoting transparency in decision-making
* publication of all contracts
* balanced participation of private sector and other interest groups in government delegations
* establishing codes of conduct for official dealings with private companies
* reform of aid programmes to promote transparency and make them conditional on good governance
* dismantling all aid and trade provisions
* adopting legislation banning the import of illegally produced timbers
* reducing subsidies to private sector forestry
* providing greater support for independent forestry research
* raising public awareness about the social and environmental impacts of forest product use.

10. European aid
Tim Rice, European Aid and Forests.

Taken together European countries provide more than half of all development assistance to developing countries and countries with economies in transition. This 'aid' is delivered through a veritable octopus of institutions with overlapping goals and competences including bilateral agencies, export credit guarantee schemes, political risk insurance, multilateral development banks, the European Commission and the specialised agencies of the United Nations. Aid in general is strongly shaped by the national interests of donor countries and is usually treated as an arm of foreign policy. Much bilateral aid remains 'tied' and thus promotes the export of national industries, products, expertise and is also used to promote the import of valued commodities.

Most aid budgets to recipient countries are determined by macro-economic considerations, as a means of securing the economies of recipient countries through adjusting balance of payments and facilitating debt servicing. Development assistance may thus have very broadly defined goals and those planning these large disbursements of money have little conception of the possible environmental implications of such grants and loans. Multilateral aid monies provided to dictatorships, in particular, have been criticised for ignoring their political and human rights implications and for helping to prop up arbitrary forms of government, such as the Philippines under Marcos and Indonesia under Suharto, with devastating environmental consequences.

Structural adjustment lending, which aims to promote exports and cut back national expenditures, has often explicitly encouraged an intensification of forest exploitation without measures being simultaneously taken to strengthen governments' regulatory capacity. The authors note through the mention of a number of specific projects how aid may act as an underlying cause of forest loss in a large number of ways. Funds may be provided: directly to facilitate logging operations; to boost production from the whole forest sector; to facilitate clearance of forest lands for plantations or other agribusinesses; to promote road-building and forest colonisation schemes; to build dams; to develop mines; to promote cash cropping on fertile lands outside forest and so displace the landless poor into forests. Major short-comings in such destructive projects are their narrow focus and ignorance of wider effects and the lack of public participation.

On balance, aid agencies are not able to prioritise environmental benefits and are awkwardly placed to address the underlying causes of forest loss, because of their political nature. By ignoring these problems, aid often acts itself as an underlying cause of forest loss, and sets in place in developing countries the same failed models of forest management and economic development that have caused forest loss in the developed countries.

Not all aid is bad. The authors single out a number of 'best practice' projects which demonstrate how development assistance can work to enhance forest management and secure local peoples' welfare and livelihoods. Such projects are often small-scale, intensely participatory and entail high overheads in project preparation, administration and oversight.

The author proposes a number of essential, 'first-step' recommendations to address some of the current problems of aid. For example, policies and procedures used to safeguard the environment and local communities (and indeed to meet the wider objectives of sustainable development) should be reviewed, and revised or adopted where necessary. Such policies and procedures should be mandatory and enforced. Consultation with beneficiaries and other stakeholders should be an integral part of the whole project cycle. Full public access to all project documents (including voting decisions) is required if stakeholders are to play a meaningful role in projects and programmes. Where projects and programmes have adversely affected people, a mechanism should be established to have these complaints independently assessed (with possible redress).

The authors also propose a re-prioritisation in the direction of aid. Increasingly, projects and programmes need to be identified and designed by the beneficiaries themselves. Beneficiaries should also have control during implementation; such management and participation would unify communities, increase self-reliance (including control over funds) and recognise indigenous peoples' rights (including land tenure issues). This however places an even greater burden on donors; they need to be better equipped and empowered to provide outreach into potential beneficiary communities and to assist such communities to themselves identify and develop projects. This requires considerably greater country-level co-ordination amongst donors - where the ethos is on shared experienced and feedback, where overheads and bureaucracy are reduced and where projects are complementary

List of case studies

The following local and national case studies were contributed (all summarised above):

1. Georgina Green, Examining the Underlying Causes of Woodland Loss from Road-Building: a case study of the Newbury bypass, UK.

2. Karin Lindahl, Forests and Forestry in Jokkmokk Municipality: a case study contributing to the discussion of underlying causes leading to deforestation and forest degradation of the world's forests.

3. Rein Ahas, Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Estonia: a local level case study in Polva County.

4. Michael Pregernig and Gerhard Weiss, Forest Policy in Austria: Policy Making by the Sector for the Sector.

5. Ivan Gyulai, The Underlying Causes of Forest Degradation in Hungary, with a special emphasis on the privatisation of forest areas.

6. Ion Barbu, Sustainable Development of Forestry in Romania.

7. Paulo Canaveira, Ana Maria Almeida, Joao Sousa Teixeira, R. Oliveira, Forests and People in the Iberian Peninsula.

The impact of European societies on forests has not been limited to Europe. As a major colonial force and a centre of industrialisation and world trade, Western Europe has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on forests all over the world. At first, the organisers were unsure how to deal with this aspect, as the case study approach - looking out from local forest situations - was not likely to elucidate these connections. On the other hand a comprehensive examination of Western Europe's impacts on the world's forests is a mammoth subject far too ambitious for this process to address adequately. For the purpose of this consultation we have thus had to opt for a compromise. The three case studies do not pretend to do more than illustrate the kinds of connections between European aid and trade and forest loss and summarise some of the main problems and solutions that have been identified in other more detailed studies.

The following in depth studies were prepared (all summarised above):

1. Tim Rice, European Aid and Forests.

2. Nigel Dudley, Trade as an Underlying Cause of Forest Loss and Degradation.

3. Simon Counsell, Breaking the Iron Triangle: The Influence of the Private Sector in Forest Policy.

Participants list

• Rein Ahas, Friends of the Earth, Estonia
• Ion Barbu, ICAS Forestry Research, Romania
• Reinhard Behrend, Rettet den Regenwald, Germany
• Mary Bystrom, Forest Consultant, University of Uppsala, Sweden
• Marcus Colchester, Forest Peoples Programme, UK
• Simon Counsell, Rainforest Foundation UK
• Peter Freiherr von Fürstenberg, Deutscher Forstverein, Büren, Germany
• Thomas Gottlob, Ministry of Agriculture (Bundes Ministerium fur Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten) , Germany
• Ulrich Hoenisch, Ministry of Agriculture (Bundes Ministerium für Ernährung Landwirtschaft und Forsten), Germany
• Heidi Feldt, Klima Bündnis Alliance/Climate Alliance, Germany
• Georgina Green, Environmental Consultant, Djibouti
• Ivan Gyulai, CEEWEB/Ecological Institute for Sustainable Development, Hungary
• Jutta Kill, Urgewald Germany
• Wolfgang Kuhlmann, ARA Germany
• Stefan Leiner, WWF European Policy Office, Brussels Belgium
• Laszlo Maraz, Pro Regenwald, Germany
• Chantal Marijnissen, Fern Brussels, Belgium
• Rosario Ortiz, Global Secretariat for Underlying Causes, Colombia
• Saskia Ozinga, Fern UK
• Michael Pregernig, University of Vienna, Austria
• Tim Rice, Environmental Consultant, UK
• Regine Roy, European Commission DG XI, Brussels
• Bert Schotveld, IKC Wageningen/Ministry of Agriculture, the Netherlands
• Joao Sousa Teixeira, Ministry of Agriculture, Portugal
• Ellen von Zitzewitz, WWF Germany

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