World Forest Policy

The central question for the international community concerned with world forest resources is how to reach consensus on better use of the world's forests economically without compromising their ecological role. The Woods Hole Research Center believes that such consensus can be developed by working with nongovernmental organizations and the scientific and policy communities.

The Center's activities have led to the establishment of the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development which has in turn created an independent Science Council of leading global scientists and a Policy Advisory Group of leading global forest policy and environmental researchers. A global Forest Action Network of nongovernmental organizations is evolving.

Early History - UNCED and 1991 Workshop

The issue of forests was one of the most polarizing and hotly debated of the Preparatory Committee meetings (PrepComs) for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Realizing that there could not be political progress without consensus from the scientific community, the Woods Hole Research Center organized a workshop on the “Conservation and Utilization of World Forests” during October 17-20, 1991, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The products include both the “Report of the Workshop on the Conservation and Utilization of World Forests” and a book, published by Yale University Press in 1993 and comprising papers prepared for the workshop, entitled World Forests for the Future: Their Use and Conservation, edited by Kilaparti Ramakrishna, Senior Associate for International Environmental Law and George M. Woodwell, Director of the Woods Hole Research Center.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during June 3-14, 1992. A large delegation from the Woods Hole Research Center attended the so-called “Earth Summit,” including George M. Woodwell and Kilaparti Ramakrishna, who were invited as special guests of Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the Conference. [The full report from UNCED is Agenda 21.]  The debate over the issue of forests continued in Rio, resulting in a document entitled

“Non-Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests,” as well as

Chapter 11 of Agenda 21 – Combating Deforestation.

The WCFSD and Science Council

The idea of establishing an independent World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development (WCFSD) originated at the seminar on the "Conservation and Utilization of World Forests" held at the Woods Hole Research Center in the lead up to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The Woods Hole Research Center's interest in the establishment of the WCFSD was based on our recognition that there is a need to take a holistic approach to forests' dual role as both an ecological and an economic good.

Following UNCED in 1992, the idea for a world commission on forests was taken up and promoted by an “organizing committee for the establishment of an independent World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development”, formed at a meeting in Rome July 24-25, 1992. Ambassador Ola Ullsten, former Prime Minister of Sweden, took on the task of chairing the committee, whose members consisted of prominent citizens from countries with significant forest resources in both tropical and temperate regions, including both experts in climate and forests as well as the secretaries general of both the Brundtland Commission and the Earth Summit. The Woods Hole Research Center acted as the secretariat for the organizing committee, and Dr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna was named Coordinator of the organizing committee.

The organizing committee next met in November of 1992 in Ottawa where it outlined the rationale for a commission and also drafted a possible mandate and work program. The third and final meeting of the organizing committee was held in New Delhi in April 1993. Here the group approved text of the document, “Possible Mandate, Key Issues, Strategy and Work Plan,” released in print in June 1993.

Just a year later, in June of 1994, the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government formally launched the independent World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, listing its purpose as being

i) to raise the level of understanding of the dual role that world forests have in preserving the natural environment and contributing to sustainable socioeconomic development, particularly in developing countries;

ii) to accomplish a widening of the consensus of data, science and policy in this still insufficiently explored area;

iii) to build confidence between North and South on forest matters with emphasis on the role of international cooperation.

Objectives of the Commission are therefore 1) to contribute to reconciliation of conflicts between various stakeholders with sharply differing perceptions about the role of forests;

2) to assist national governments in pursuing key policy reforms; and

3) to mobilize support for strengthening scientific research.

The Commission held its inaugural meeting in June 1995, in Geneva, under the co-chairmanship of Ambassador Ola Ulsten, former Prime Minister of Sweden, and Professor Emil Salim, Former Minister of Environment and Population of Indonesia. The Commission subsequently established its own secretariat in Geneva, held a series of regional hearings for all stakeholders around the world, and produced a report and recommendations in a book published by Cambridge University Press in 1999 entitled Our Forests, Our Future (pdf summary of the report, 40 pp).

The Woods Hole Research Center also established an independent Science Council in conjunction with the WCFSD with the purpose of providing scientific advice to the Commission and to the ongoing intergovernmental and nongovernmental processes engaged in the process of advancing the next steps in the management of world forests. The major challenge for the Council will be the establishment of the scale of the role of forests in maintaining the biosphere and the human habitat.

Nongovernmental Action

The Woods Hole Research Center organized a conference in July 1994 to examine the rapidly emerging influence of the nongovernmental community in working towards the conservation and better utilization of world forests and to explore the possibility of establishing a Forest Action Network (FAN). Regional networks of NGOs are germinating in Africa, Latin America and Asia. A follow-up meeting was held in August 1996 to consider the establishment of a regional network in North America, and the facilitation of connections between the various regional networks to create an effective global Forest Action Network. Future steps in this realm are being contemplated by other organizations present at the meeting.

Criteria & Indicators

On the specific topic of sustainable forest management “criteria and indicators,” Mary Beth Adams, Kilaparti Ramakrishna, and Eric A. Davidson edited a Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) Special Publication entitled The Contribution of Soil Science to the Development of and Implementation of Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management (SSSA Special Publication Number 53, 1998). Ramakrishna and Davidson, both of the Woods Hole Research Center, also authored the first chapter of that book entitled “Intergovernmental Negotiations on Criteria and Indicators for the Management, Conservation, and Sustainable Development of Forests: What Role for Forest Soil Scientists?”

Intergovernmental Action

Through various efforts, the Center has contributed to putting global forest issues back on the international agenda. Under the auspices of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), forest issues were taken up by the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) beginning in 1995, followed by the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF), which completed its work in early 2000. Most recently the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations issued a resolution creating the United Nations Forum on Forest (UNFF) as a subsidiary body under ECOSOC itself. Working with the recommendations of the IPF/IFF processes, the UNFF is charged with considering “the parameters of a mandate for developing a legal framework on all types of forests."

The Woods Hole Research Center continues to actively participate in the international fora dealing with global forest issues. It is anticipated that the international community may commence negotiations on a global forest convention in a few years, and the Center will bring its scientific, policy and legal expertise to bear in those negotiations towards agreement on sustainable forest management internationally.

WSSD Special Event on FCI

The Woods Hole Research Center also remains committed to forwarding the recommendations contained in the 1999 report of the WCFSD, in particular the idea of a “forest capital index,” and establishing links with institutions around the world to further develop and implement those ideas. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Woods Hole Research Center and the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development co-sponsored a special parallel event August 30, 2002, entitled "Development of the Forest Capital Index." This event featured a panel discussion of distinguished scholars including Ola Ullsten, Former Prime Minister of Sweden; Emil Salim, Chair of the WSSD PrepCom; George M. Woodwell, President and Director of the Center; M.S. Swaminathan, Founder of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation; J.G. Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; and Kilaparti Ramakrishna, Sara Shallenberger Brown Chair in Environmental Policy and Deputy Director of the Woods Hole Research Center.

The world community has lost about 40 percent of its original forested landscape area. This loss entails not only the elimination of many forest-dominated ecosystems, but also a decline in the health of many remaining forested regions. The consequences of these changes are losses in critical habitat for many species, losses in biodiversity, and a reduction in ecosystem services including the capacity to regulate climate, hydrological and nutrient cycles, and the capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Continued overexploitation of forest dominated landscapes is a potential threat to all three aspects of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social.

There is broad agreement that the world needs to reverse the degradation of forests. Governments need to adopt and apply sustainable management approaches so we can use forests without abusing them. This means planning for the use and protection of entire landscapes, not only isolated forests. Setting targets for wood harvest is one aspect for such planning, but cannot become the paramount interest. The concept of sustainability implies that ecological concerns must set the limits for economic activities, not the desire to be subservient to economic goals. As forests are lost it is vital that tools exist for measuring their environmental values. The set of measures must be portrayed as an easily understood set of figures that can guide forest use and management. The tool to accomplish this is the forest capital index.

The World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development first recommended the development of a Forest Capital Index (FCI) in its report entitled Our Forests … Our Future (p. 30 of the pdf summary). A number of institutions have come together under the leadership of the Co-Chair of WCFSD, Mr. Ola Ullsten, to work on developing FCI. These institutions include:

Woods Hole Research Center (Woods Hole, Massachusetts USA);

M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (Chennai, India);

College Faculty of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph (Guelph, Canada);

Forest Faculty at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (Umeå, Sweden);

Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (New Haven, Connecticut USA); and

International Institute for Sustainable Development (Winnipeg, Canada).

In addition to these, the Center for International Forestry Research in Indonesia and the United Nations Environment Programme are closely involved as well.

©Woods Hole Research Center, 2008