Summary: June 11, 2001: The First Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests. Opening Statement by Ambassador Karl-Erik Norrman, Head of Delegation of Sweden on behalf of the European Union (New York)
Mr Chairman, excellencies and honourable delegates,
1. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. With your permission I would like to limit this opening statement to a few general remarks. I will outline our more detailed positions on the respective agenda items.
2. At the outset, the EU would like to thank the Secretariat for the good work undertaken since the organizational session in February this year in preparation of this meeting. The informal consultations in February to share views on the UNFF have proved very constructive. The EU welcomes the Secretary-General's reports, the Note from the Secretariat and the CPF policy document, which will form a useful basis for the discussions during UNFF1.
3. The EU reaffirms that sustainable forest management (sfm) is an integral part of sustainable development. The EU remains committed to the implementation of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21 and the Forest Principles and reiterates its support for promoting the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.
4. The EU is of the view that the MYPOW, as outlined in ECOSOC Resolution E/2000/35, should translate the objectives, principal functions and the specific tasks into concrete activities to be undertaken by the UNFF over the next five years. The overall goal of the MYPOW should be to facilitate and promote implementation at national, regional and global levels of sustainable forest management in all types of forests. The MYPOW must also allow the UNFF to provide a forum for policy guidance and
coordination.
5. To ensure effectiveness, UNFF should have a manageable agenda. For instance, each session of the UNFF could deal with one crosscutting issue and two other priority issues. These could include issues that arise from national reports dealing with obstacles and achievements in implementation as well as current developments in other processes, in particular forest-related conventions and global programs.
6. The EU considers that the Plan of Action should be seen as a process to support implementation of IPF/IFF Proposals for Action, which are to be carried out at the national, regional and global levels. The Plan of Action should be build on the IFF Final Report, which outlines how implementation of the IPF/IFF Proposals for Action should be undertaken. Since the UNFF is a facilitating rather than an operational body, its Plan of Action will have to work through existing instruments by giving
guidance for more effective and coherent support for the implementation of the IPF/IFF Proposals for Action.
7. The EU is of the firm opinion that a decision on the Plan of Action should be taken already at UNFF1. In our view, we should decide on the overall framework, targets and timetable, which will facilitate actors to identify their own priorities and approaches to implement the IPF/IFF Proposals for Action in a holistic manner. The Plan of Action should enable countries to draw appropriate conclusions, and for the CPF members, regional processes and other stakeholders to provide appropriate
inputs.
8. As the group of donors providing the largest volume of grant funds for forests, the EU is already playing an important role internationally in the implementation of the IPF/IFF Proposals for Action, and will continue to assist developing countries to develop and implement national forest programmes in so far as the countries concerned request such assistance in their bilateral negotiations with donors within existing development programmes.
9. In order to achieve this, nfps and their Financing Strategies will have to be incorporated into national sustainable development strategies, taking into account the overriding development objective of poverty eradication. Through this process, national priorities for development assistance can be set, including specific demands for external support requested in the framework of bilateral agreements with donors, or responded to by international organisations and instruments, such as the
proposed National Forest Programme Facility, PROFOR and others.
10. The EU welcomes the recent establishment of the CPF. The CPF should support the work of the UNFF and enhance cooperation and coordination amongst its participants to seek synergies between the organisations and the instruments involved. CPF participants should also undertake joint programming that is consistent with policies, strategies and activities promoted by the UNFF. The CPF should act in a twofold manner; to coordinate inputs from its various members to UNFF, and to take full account
of UNFF activities in its work.
11. The EU stresses the importance it places on the appropriate participation of all relevant organisations, instruments, institutions, regional processes as well as the private sector, NGOs and other major groups as defined in Agenda 21 in the work of the UNFF. The EU looks forward to their active participation in this session.
12. Mr Chairman, the EU looks forward to pursuing these issues in depth during the substantive sessions in dialogue with our partners.
Thank you for your attention.
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