India hosting United Nations Forum on Forests meeting to deliberate on forest fires and forest certification
The Ministry
of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is organising a Country-Led
Initiative (CLI) event as part of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF)
from 26-28 October, 2023 at the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun,
Uttarakhand.
The
United Nations Forum on Forests promotes the management, conservation, and
sustainable development of all types of forests. India holds the distinction of
being a founding member of UNFF. The UN General Assembly adopted the first-ever
UN Strategic Plan for Forests for the period of 2017-2030. This Strategic Plan
serves as a global framework for actions at all levels to achieve the
sustainable management of all types of forests, including trees outside forests,
and to combat deforestation and forest degradation.
The CLI's primary goal is to contribute to the
discussions of UNFF regarding the implementation of Sustainable Forest
Management and the UN Strategic Plan for Forests. It also aims to facilitate
the sharing of best practices among UNFF member States for the implementation
of SFM and the UNSPF. The CLI will discuss on thematic areas involving forest
fires and forest certification. During this event, experts from UNFF member
countries, the UN organizations, regional and sub-regional partners, as well as
major groups, will deliberate on the thematic issues.
The formal meeting will commence on 26th October
2023. The programme includes two days of deliberations and exchange on guiding
themes- forest fires and forest certification- and a one-day field trip. The
deliberations on the thematic areas- forest fires and forest certification-
will promote sharing of good practices on these areas to support global actions
in advancing the Global Forest Goals of the UN Strategic Plan for Forests
(UNSPF).
In recent years, the world has witnessed an alarming
increase in the scale and duration of wildfires, leading to profound impacts on
biodiversity, ecosystem services, human well-being, livelihoods, and national
economies. Forested areas have been particularly affected, with approximately
100 million hectares, equivalent to 3% of the world's forest area, affected by
fires every year. The severity of these fires has been exemplified by numerous
high-profile incidents, resulting in unhealthy air quality and significant loss
of human lives, wildlife, ecosystem services and property, including wildfire
disasters in the northern hemisphere this summer. The situation is no different
in India, with changing climate forest fires are becoming a regular phenomenon.
The issue of forest certification has received growing
global attention in recent years. The total forest area under certification has
increased by 35% (or 120 million ha) since 2010. Between 2020 and 2021, the
certified forest area increased by 27 million hectares. The developing
countries continue to face several challenges with the certification process.
This includes excessive costs of certification, audit and compliance issues,
inaccessibility to forest owners in remote regions, and lack of capacity due to
complexity of various certification standards. The deliberations vis-à-vis
forest certification will enrich the policy landscape in the developing
countries with regards to this issue area.
The UN Forest Instrument has adopted several policy
measures to encourage sustainable forest management through promoting and
implementing voluntary instruments such as voluntary certification systems or
other appropriate mechanisms in a transparent manner. However, some countries
consider the measures and requirements for certification as creating trade
challenges or market barriers for their forest products. On the other hand,
some other countries consider forest certification as an effective means to
ensure SFM and a tool for preventing forest degradation or deforestation.
Another major concern is that most consumer markets recognize certification
from a select few certifying bodies at the expense of other certification
schemes.
This meeting will host discussions amongst the
participating states on these issue areas. This will be attended by more than 80 delegates
participating from over 40 countries and 20 international organizations, both
in person and online. The
meeting is expected to come out with implementable frameworks and
recommendations for management of forest fire and forest certification leading
towards Sustainable Forest Management, which will be considered for discussions
at the 19th session of UNFF scheduled at UN Headquarters, New York in May
2024.