Multi-stakeholder Consultation on Forests for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

Summary of USDA Meeting on Oct. 10,2001

By Gary Pupurs

Related Links: Oct 10 Meeting Announcement Next Meeting: Nov. 9th, at USDA

The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the format, outline, and tone of the US Report on Forests that USDA is proposing to write for the Summit.

Right now the contents of this report is pretty wide open; even the USG people admitted they're still in 'learning mode' on what to cover in this report and are still debating what ideas to promote and what substantive policy positions to advance for WSSD. If you or your organization is involved in forest issues, I urge you to try to contribute and help provide oversight to keep the report useful and honest. If you're not able to make it to DC for the meetings, you can also participate via conference call; two people did for this meeting.

Summary Notes

About 45 people were in attendance, roughly in thirds between government, civil society NGOs, and industry associations. The meeting was relatively constructive, conflicting views between industry and NGOs were minimal, though the likely reason was because most NGOs in attendance were big mainstream NGOs, with few smaller issue-specific groups.

It was suggested by an NGO and generally agreed that to be effective the report must catalyze action by governments and people or it simply is a writing exercise. Several expressed their concern that it not be a 'chest thumping' report that simply praises US efforts and avoids any self-criticism or introspection.

The general outline currently is to view the US from different roles it plays, such as US as community, as leader in sust. forest mgmt, as supplier & producer, etc. The proposed length is 25 pages, which some feel is too short to cover everything effectively. A suggestion was made to break the paper into two, one covering context, background, success stories, and another forward looking paper identifying past and current challenges, along with concrete proposals for solutions.

Issues raised which were not in the outline included institutional and legal frameworks (as set out in the Montreal Convention), the importance of long term stability and ownership rights, as well as the relationship between forests, forestry, and sustainable development, specifically how it relates to the 8 cross cutting issues on the agenda for the World Summit. Others left out include biodiversity, alternatives to forest products, more renewable fibers for paper products, recycling, externalities, sprawl, illegal logging, and indigenous rights.

Several hoped the paper might highlight some workable international solutions, thus inspiring that could be rolled into resolutions at WSSD and subsequently approved. Others thought the paper should be viewed as a tool to support the more general US positions (which are still not established fully, but likely will focus heavily on governance).

As followup, USDA will collate results from the meeting, circulate an updated outline, get feedback, and schedule another meeting to review the revised outline and discuss how the report can directly relate to and contribute to some of the cross-sectoral issues that are the main focus of WSSD.

If you would like to have a copy of the draft outline sent to you, or would like to be notified of future meetings, contact Jennie O'Connor at jmoconnor@fs.fed.us or 202-205-0805.