Thorny mission to preserve world's forests

Third World countries and notably those of the Congo basin face an uphill challenge in looking after their forests while allowing for population growth and development. The debate is a primary theme being discussed this week at a meeting in the Congolese capital Brazzaville of some 500 experts from the Congo Basin in Central Africa, South America's Amazon Basin and the Borneo-Mekong Basin in South-East Asia. These areas make up 80 per cent of the globe's rainforests and contain two-thirds of its biodiversity. "It's out of the question to renounce development; our goal is the well-being of our people," Etienne Massard, a special advisor to Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba, told AFP before the debates began on May 28. "On the other hand, we have really to think about our actions and our strategy in order not to mortgage our future." Mette Loyche Wilkie, head of forestry in the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, raised linked issues: "By 2050 we need to increase the production of agriculture by 70 percent in order to feed the world. It's clear we have to increase the productivity of agriculture. That is possible to a large extent, but there will also be an expansion of agriculture at the expense of forest." Wilkie said this needed to happen in the right places. "It is a matter of having an integrated land use planning where you decide which forest to keep, which forest to maintain as permanent, which forest you protect in terms of protected areas to protect biodiversity, in which forest you allow production of wood, and in some cases which forests you set aside for conversion because it is clear that in some countries, you need to cut down trees to establish a new harbour, new roads, new housing, and in some cases agriculture." Mario Boccucci of the UN Environment Programme defended a "green economy" in which he emphasised the "important social dimension in terms "of livelihood, people." "That's the concept of a green economy. Look at your larger economy so you can identify ways to maximize the social economic and environmental outcomes of your development. (...) "What we are looking here is ways to catalyse different kind of economy. An economy that will still deliver economic growth, export revenues, still create jobs. But that does it without clearing forest. As an example, Boccucci cited Indonesia's plans to make oil palm a future viable industry, for which they need land. "The plan is to get the land from the forest, but Indonesia has potentially a lot of land that is already degraded that can be used for plantations." Boccucci insisted that the status of land needs to be clarified by the state, because it is "too risky" for the private sector to invest millions of dollars on land that is under dispute or occupied. Gaston Foutou, head of conservation in the Congolese Ministry of Forest Economy, argued that "the population must at once feel the impact of forest production and the protection of ecosystems." "We can't develop without cutting down forest," he said. "If I need a table or a chair, I have to be able to cut wood. What we need is a viable policy for the rational and sustainable exploitation of the forest. And that it's profitable for people." Officials are expected to sign a joint statement on tropical forests, climate and sustainable development ahead of a meeting of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa later this year and the Earth Summit 2012, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.