A coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations (IPOs) commissioned an independent review of the status of implementation, in 21 countries, of the Convention of Biological Diversity commitments related to forests, and came up with a number of recommendations for action.
The global report --presented in The Hague at CBD COP6-- provides a synthesis of the 21 country reports, reflecting the information provided by the relevant Ministries to a questionnaire and comments on that information by civil society participants in the review. The countries analysed in the report are: Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Africa, Suriname, Uganda, United Kingdom, and Uruguay.
The main finding is that very little has been achieved regarding implementation of commitments, after 10 years of negotiations at the CBD. A major conclusion that stands out almost as a rule is the lack of integration between National Biodiversity Strategies/Action Plans and National Forest Programmes --the latter putting a strong emphasis on the economic value of forests-- as well as the lack of involvement of indigenous peoples and local communities in national biodiversity processes.
The English version of the full report can be downloaded from http://www.wrm.org.uy/GFC/material.html , Status of Implementation of Forest-Related Clauses in the CBD: An Independent Review & Recommendations for Action; and the Spanish version from http://www.wrm.org.uy/CMB/material.html , Situación de la Implementación de las Obligaciones relacionadas a los Bosques emanadas del Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica: Análisis independiente y recomendaciones para la acción. For hard copies, address Fern at fern.belgium@wanadoo.be. The 21 country reports will be soon available on line.
