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Remarks by SG to General Assembly on outcome of Rio+20 United Nations Conference
on Sustainable Development
Speech by Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba United Nations Conference on
Sustainable Development (Rio + 20) (June 20, 2012)
Evaluation of the result of Rio+20 by Japanese ENGO
i"Sustainable Development Goals" and Forestj
One of the topics in "the Future We Want" is "the Member States -- agreed to launch a process to establish universal
sustainable development goals, SDGs."
The SDGs will build on advances under the Millennium Development Goals,
and they will be an integral part of the post-2015 development framework.
As the process of the development of SDGs will be one of the main tasks
of the follow-up of Rio+20, it is an important issue that clear forest
related targets and indicators will be described in the Goals.
In Non Legally Binding Instruments (NLBI) in all types of forest, "Increase significantly the area of protected forests worldwide
and other areas of sustainably managed forests, as well as the proportion
of forest products from sustainably managed forests" is described.
If this concept will be integerated into SDGs, clearer definition of sustainably
managed forests and more specfic indicators may be necessary for the next
step of the Goals,.
Those kinds of works will be necessary for global forest issues to be a
part of main streem agenda in global sustanabale development issues.
iForest in the International Commitmentj
4 out of 238 paragraphs refer to the Forest issues,
193. @We highlight the social, economic and environmental benefits of forests to people and the contributions of sustainable forest management to the themes and objective of the Conference. We support cross-sectoral and cross-institutional policies promoting sustainable forest management. We reaffirm that the wide range of products and services that forests provide creates opportunities to address many of the most pressing sustainable development challenges. We call for enhanced efforts to achieve the sustainable management of forests, reforestation, restoration and afforestation, and we support all efforts that effectively slow, halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation, including, inter alia, promoting trade in legally harvested forest products. We note the importance of such ongoing initiatives as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries. We call for increased efforts to strengthen forest governance frameworks and means of implementation, in accordance with the non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests, in order to achieve sustainable forest management.
To this end, we commit to improving the livelihoods of people and communities
by creating the conditions needed for them to sustainably manage forests,
including through strengthening cooperation arrangements in the areas of
finance, trade, transfer of environmentally sound technologies, capacity-building
and governance, as well as by promoting secure land tenure, particularly
decision-making and benefit-sharing, in accordance with national legislation
and priorities.. |
| 194. We call for urgent implementation of the non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests and the Ministerial Declaration of the high-level segment of the ninth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests on the occasion of the launch of the International Year of Forests |
| 195. We recognize that the United Nations Forum on Forests, with its universal membership and comprehensive mandate, plays a vital role in addressing forestrelated issues in a holistic and integrated manner, and promoting international policy coordination and cooperation to achieve sustainable forest management. We invite the Collaborative Partnership on Forests to continue its support to the Forum and encourage stakeholders to remain actively engaged in the work of the Forum. |
| 196. We stress the importance of integrating sustainable forest management objectives and practices into the mainstream of economic policy and decisionmaking, and to that end we commit to working through the governing bodies of member organizations of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests to integrate, as appropriate, the sustainable management of all types of forests into their strategies and programmes. |
It does not seem to be ambisias that it is made up with reconfirmation of the commitments already made, but it is not so easy to implement sucsesfuly the commitments made.
Non Legally Binding Instruments (NLBI) made in UNFF7 and endorsed in UNGA refered in Para 156, includes the following
objectives
Global objective 1
Reverse the loss of forest cover worldwide through sustainable forest management,
including protection, restoration, afforestation and reforestation, and
increase efforts to prevent forest degradation;
Global objective 2
Enhance forest-based economic, social and environmental benefits, including
by improving the livelihoods of forest dependent people;
Global objective 3
Increase significantly the area of protected forests worldwide and other
areas of sustainably managed forests, as well as the proportion of forest
products from sustainably managed forests;
Global objective 4
Reverse the decline in official development assistance for sustainable
forest management and mobilize significantly increased, new and additional
financial resources from all sources for the implementation of sustainable
forest management.
"The Future We Want", means those objectives will be positioned
in the commitment by head of the states. It is our task to achieve those
targets and the fruit of the result will be fixed in the future SDGs.
iRio+20 Side-events for Forest Issuesj
One of my objectives to visit Rio+20 is to attend as many as side events
relatede to forest issues to build up background of the net-works based
on the Japan Forest Information Reviews.
I planed to attend listed above accomplised mosts of them.
Companies related to biomass materials are generally ambitious to invest
to development of new products. They recognize it is favored by the green
economy. They tried to make better commutations to local comunities for
securring sustainable supply systems for biomass materials. And the importance
of B to C communications are mentioned repeatedl at every events.
I hope that the relation between biomass material producers, consumers,
local comunities, relevant public authorities will be developed and based
on them, sound SDGs including the sustainably managed forestry goals. Legally
binding conventions for sustainable forest should be the next agenda based
on them.
(Presentation from Japan Forest Information Review)
I made presentation in qhn{QO Side event of FAO,,ICFPA, BRACELPA and Partners Forests: The Heart
of a Green Economy, as follows.
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Recent Legislation on Promotion of Wood Utilization in Japan and Environment Information on Wood
Takashi Fujiwara PhD
Managing Director, Japan Federation of Wood Industry Association
Chairman, Managing Committee, The Woodmiles Forum
fujiwara@t.nifty.jp
1.@Establishment of the new legislation in Japan
In 2010, The Act for Promotion of Use of Wood in Public Buildings etc was
enacted. It proved that consensus built to promote the wood as green materials
as well as the interested partiesf long-time effort paid off.@It stipulates
the national and municipal wood use plan.@Now, we have administrative support
system related to wood use, however the key to success is eventually to
ensure the support from consumers for environmental performance of wood.
gthe Act for Promotion of Use of Wood in Public Buildings etchEnacted on May 26, 2010
2.@Challenge to communicate the environmental performance of wood
When we see the environmental performance of wood, there is a problem how
we address the concept gusing wood leads deforestationh. To explain the
relationship of global deforestation and reproducible forest products to
the general consumers, we need to systemize to pass on accurate information
of environmental burden and environmental contribution during the production
process. I would like to share you Japanfs experience, dividing it into
two parts;
1) Efficient establishment of the system to convey the information of the point of production where tends to become more remote through the business chain; 2) perspective to shorten the distance of the point of production and the point of consumption.
(1) Efficient establishment of the system to convey the information of the point of production where tends to become more remote through the business chain
Characteristics of wood products distribution and importance of business network management
(Explanation of Activities against illegal logging issues by wood industry in Japan with Forestry Agencyfs guideline and its significance and challenge ( More than 8500 wood industry companies in Japan are guaranteed by 140 industry associations for their capacity to make verification for their products as legality) )
Gohowood: Japan!s measures against illegal logging issue
(2) Perspective to shorten the distance of the point of production and the point of consumption
Tendency of farther distance between the point of wood consumption and production
There are two aspects to argue about the significance of shortening the distance of the point of production and the point of consumption from perspective of environmental improvement as follows.
a) The shorter distance between the point of production and the point of consumption is the condition to make the consumers to aware actually the degree of environmental burden at the point of production
b) Reduce the environmental burden of transport process
Introduction of the activity of the Woodmiles Forum
The Woodmiles Forum |Considering the distance between forest origin and
wood consumers|
3. The conclusion
Forest and wood should sit on the centre of the green economy
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