Springer Old Growth Forests - Chapter 20 ppt

20.2.3 UN Forum on Forests UNFFThe UNFF is a forum towards an international agreement on forests ‘‘to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of for

Old-Growth Forests in the Context of

International Environmental Agreements

Annette Freibauer

20.1 Introduction

Forests are included in several political negotiations and legal documents under the United Nations (UN) This chapter focusses on the three most relevant and dynamic

UN political processes in the context of old-growth forests: The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diver-sity (CBD), and the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) Forests are also addressed by the UN Convention on Combating Desertification and the Ramsar Convention on wetlands

Old-growth forests are defined by biological and ecological criteria, which differ from the criteria and categories applied in international environmental agreements The absence of human impact is no clear criterion for old-growth forests Old-growth forests can be managed or unmanaged, and can be primary or secondary forests (see Chap 2, by Wirth et al., this volume)

Following the definitions in Chap 2 of this book, old-growth forests are characterised by

ages close to their life expectancy; mean age half the lifespan of the dominat-ing trees),

gap-phase dynamics (uneven-aged, regeneration of shade-tolerant species, presence of canopy gaps, large snags and logs in varying stages of decay) The question arises whether it matters in the context of international environ-mental agreements if forests are in their late stages of succession This chapter summarises the present status of old-growth forests in global environmental agree-ments and discusses promising options to include old-growth forests in future phases of these agreements

The following sections (1) give an introduction to the UNFCCC, CBD and UNFF and show the role of forests in these UN political processes; (2) highlight characteristics of old-growth forests relevant for the UNFCCC, CBD and UNFF,

C Wirth et al (eds.), Old ‐Growth Forests, Ecological Studies 207, 451 DOI: 10.1007/978 ‐3‐540‐92706‐8 20, # Springer‐Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009

and analyse how they are reflected in the context of the agreements; and (3) assess how and to what extent old-growth forests could be considered in future stages of these international environmental agreements

20.2 Forests in UN Processes

20.2.1 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC (Article 2) is the ‘‘stabilisation of green-house gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change , to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner’’ (UNFCCC 1992,

1997, 2002)

According to this objective, the UNFCCC addresses only anthropogenic green-house gas emissions and abatement of adverse consequences of their emission This objective was interpreted by policy makers, and in the IPCC Good Practice Guid-ance (IPCC 2004), as a restriction to managed forests Unmanaged forests hosting the great majority of old-growth forests are not considered in the current activities under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol As of October 2007, 191 countries, with some exceptions, e.g Iraq and Somalia, have ratified the UNFCCC Almost the entire global forest area (99.8%) is located in signatory states of the UNFCCC However, it is left to the individual signatory states to define what constitutes

‘‘managed forests’’ (Ho¨hne et al 2007) Depending on the choice of definition of

‘‘managed forest’’, the UNFCCC addresses as much as 92% of global forests if all types of uses are included, but down to 34% of global forests if only the production function is included (see Table 20.1) The 24% of global forests that are used for protection, conservation or social services (see Table 20.1) are likely to bear a significant share of old-growth forests These forest uses, however, can be missed

by a narrow definition of ‘‘managed forest’’ restricted to timber production The member countries of the UNFCCC need to submit national inventory reports including the carbon stock changes in forests Five ecosystem carbon pools have to be considered unless it can be proven that a pool is not a carbon source: Aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, deadwood litter and soil In practice, most of the reports concentrate on biomass This is also true for the country reports for the FAO Forest Resource Assessment (FAO 2005; Marklund

for old-growth forests [cf Chaps 5 (Wirth and Lichstein), 6 (Harmon), and 11 (Gleixner et al.), this volume for dynamics of dead wood and soil carbon,

than half of the reporting countries to the FAO (Fig 20.1)

Production (%) Protection (%) Conservation (%)

Social services

Multiple purpose

Article 4(d) of the UNFCCC commits countries to ‘‘promote sustainable man-agement, and promote and cooperate in the conservation and enhancement, as appropriate, of sinks and reservoirs of all greenhouse gases’’ (UNFCCC 1997) The Marrakech Accords set principles for the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol (2008 2012), e.g ‘‘that the implementation of land use, land-use change and forestry activities contributes to the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources’’ (UNFCCC 1997)

However, these principles are not legally binding The term ‘‘sustainable use of natural resources’’ is not defined

The Kyoto Protocol (UNFCCC 1997) sets mandatory emission limitation targets for industrial countries The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 84 states, among which are the European Union (EU) and its Member States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and Australia, but not the United States The Kyoto Protocol originally aimed at reducing emissions from fossil fuel use, but also includes some land use options (Ho¨hne et al 2007) Carbon stock changes created by afforestation, reforestation and deforestation (Article 3.3) are accounted

on a mandatory basis even though several countries opted to report other categories

of land management, such as forest management (Article 3.4) Twenty signatory countries, including the Russian Federation, Japan and many EU member states, but not Canada, have decided to account for forest management These countries host 25% of the global forest area; 72% of these forests are used primarily for produc-tion, 13% for multiple purposes, 9% for protecproduc-tion, 4% for conservaproduc-tion, and 2% for social services (FAO 2005) It can be expected that most, if not all of the forest area

in these countries will be included in the national accounting under the Kyoto Protocol

Fig 20.1 Response rate (in %) for carbon reporting by countries to the Food and Agriculture Organization Forest Resources Assessment (FAO FRA) 2005 (FAO 2005) Adapted from Marklund and Schoene (2006)

20.2.2 Convention on Biological Diversity

the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic

via national strategies, plans and programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity (Article 6), and in situ conservation, e.g by national systems of protected areas (Article 8)

The 2010 Biodiversity Target with various Focal Areas, Goals and Targets was decided together with indicators of success As of April 2009, the CBD has 9 member countries, excluding e.g Brunei Darussalam, Iraq, Somalia and the United States Ninety-two percent of the global forest area is located in member countries

of the CBD

The CBD addresses all managed and unmanaged forests and urges its parties to apply the principles of the ecosystem approach Forest ecosystems receive special attention under the CBD via the working programmes on forest biodiversity and on protected areas Forest protected areas do not exclude commercial use

Even more than the UNFCCC, the implementation of the CBD relies on the intentions of individual signatory states to act because the CBD has no international compliance regime In Europe, cooperation among countries for forest biodiversity

is fostered by the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) as well as by the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS)

The synthesis of progress reported in the third national reports to the CBD shows that among all ecosystem types, forests have received the greatest attention (CBD-WGRI 2007b) The thematic programme of work on forest biodiversity has been implemented with high priority by almost 70% of the reporting countries, sometimes even with quantitative national targets for total forest area, the increases

in forest area, and protected areas coverage (CBD-WGRI 2007b, 2007a) Forest biodiversity targets have been integrated into forestry and development plans Measures for forest protection, rehabilitation, restoration, conservation of threatened species, taxonomic research and activities, sustainable forest manage-ment and reforestation, and improving the knowledge basis have been introduced

by 94% of the reporting countries Many countries have established protected forest area networks (CBD-WGRI 2007a) However, it has to be noted that the reports on which the synthesis was based are voluntary and reports are not reviewed There are

no criteria to substantiate, quantify or compare progress among countries, thus, despite the large number actions described, the high amount of attention paid to forest ecosystems does not necessarily equate to significant progress in the protec-tion of forests

20.2.3 UN Forum on Forests (UNFF)

The UNFF is a forum towards an international agreement on forests ‘‘to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests and strengthen long-term political commitment to this end’’ (IFF 2000)

The 1992 Rio summit failed to agree on an international forest convention Since then, 25 years of negotiations at three successional UN fora have failed, by April

2009, to set up any legally binding international agreement Between 1995 and

1997, proposals for action to support the management, conservation and sustain-able development of forests were developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) under the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) The recommendations of the IPF were further negotiated between 1997 and 2000 under the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) In February 2000, the IFF issued its final report, which included a recommendation for an international arrangement on forests As a consequence, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a resolution outlining an international arrangement on forests and establishing the UNFF as a subsidiary body of ECOSOC Since 2000, interna-tional negotiations have continued under UNFF

In 2006, UNFF agreed on ‘‘shared global objectives on forests’’ (UNFF 2006): 1) Reverse the loss of forest cover worldwide through sustainable forest manage-ment (SFM) including protection, restoration, afforestation and reforestation, and increase efforts to prevent forest degradation;

2) Enhance forest-based economic, social and environmental benefits, including by improving the livelihoods of forest-dependent people;

3) Increase significantly the area of protected forests and other sustainably man-aged forests, and increase the proportion of forest products derived from sus-tainably managed forests; and

4) Reverse the decline in official development assistance for sustainable forest management and mobilise significantly increased new and additional financial resources from all sources for the implementation of SFM

A non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests was adopted under UNFFF on 28 April 2007 The purpose of this instrument is (UNFF 2007): a) to strengthen political commitment and action at all levels to implement effec-tively sustainable management of all types of forests and to achieve the shared global objectives on forests;

b) to enhance the contribution of forests to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, in particular with respect to poverty eradication and environmental sustainability;

c) to provide a framework for national action and international cooperation

The instrument is voluntary and non-legally binding1 Each state is responsible for the sustainable management of its forests and for the enforcement of is forest-related laws, so that the instrument remains without international control

International negotiations about forests proved a lot more difficult than those about climate change, biodiversity or desertification Major resistance has emerged from fears of losing some of the national control over forests and forest products and of national sovereign rights to exploit forest resources The definition of sustainable forest management was also controversial In conclusion, UNFF has not achieved any mandatory international obligations nor international control of unsustainable forest use

20.3 Consideration of Old-Growth Forests in UN Processes

20.3.1 Old-Growth Forests and the UN Framework Convention

on Climate Change

in all carbon pools considered under the UNFCCC (cf Chaps 5 (Wirth and Lichstein), 6 (Harmon), and 11 (Gleixner et al.), this volume, for dynamics of dead wood and soil carbon, respectively) However, due to the sensitivity of the carbon pools in biomass, dead wood and litter, large and fast carbon losses can be triggered by disturbance

Existing carbon stocks are not a criterion under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, which consider only carbon stock changes But high carbon stock den-sities are relevant in the context of potential emissions by disturbance, e.g by degradation and deforestation

Old-growth forests are treated by the UNFCCC as all other forests In cases where old-growth forests fall under the category ‘‘managed’’, their carbon stock changes are reported under the UNFCCC The industrial signatory states of the

forests, including old-growth forests (Article 3.3), and if they have elected to adopt Article 3.4 (Forest Management) they need to account for disturbance and degradation occurring in their forests, including growth forests But if old-growth forests are considered ‘‘unmanaged’’ they are excluded from the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, because for unmanaged forests it is assumed that carbon stocks do not change by direct human action This assumption is based on the paradigm that, as succession proceeds, ecosystem carbon stocks finally reach an equilibrium where gains and losses of carbon are balanced (Odum 1969) Negotiations about an international climate change agreement for the period after 2012 are in progress Although the scope and rules for the future are yet

1 Details of the negotiations and the final text of the non legally binding instrument can be found at http://www.iisd.ca/vol13/enb13162e.html.

unclear, it can be anticipated that forests will be more comprehensively included.

A new mechanism is being developed for incentives to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in developing nations This is especially important since most developing countries are in the tropics, where the fraction of old-growth forest within the primary forest landscape is particularly high compared with other biomes (see Fig 2.7 in Chap 2 by Wirth et al., this volume) Old-growth forests in developing nations endangered by deforestation or degradation could be conserved under REDD mechanisms

20.3.2 Old-Growth Forests and the Convention

on Biological Diversity

The high structural and species richness, the existence of large old trees, and the significant amounts of standing and lying dead wood in old-growth forests create habitats of high value for the conservation of biodiversity [see e.g Chaps 13 (Bergeron and Harper), 15 (Schulze et al.), 16 (Armesto et al.), and 19 (Frank et al.), this volume] Old-growth forests should therefore be, and have already partly been, priority areas for CBD targets such as protected areas, conservation of threatened species, and management guidelines (‘‘ecosystem approach’’) Old-growth forests are specifically addressed by some countries For example, Estonia’s Nature Con-servation Development Plan includes the target to maintain at least one-third of all forests more than 100 years old (CBD-WGRI 2007b) Methods for mapping old-growth forests based on forest inventories or remote sensing have been devised for many regions [see Chaps 2 (Wirth et al.) and 18 (Achard et al.), this volume] Old-growth forests are not an official forest category under the CBD Neverthe-less, of all the existing international environmental agreements, the CBD is best suited to promote the conservation of old-growth forests because it specifically addresses forests rich in biodiversity However, unlike the compliance regime under the UNFCCC, there is no enforcement of national commitments, e.g to achieve the 2010 Biodiversity Target

20.3.3 Old-Growth Forests and the UN Forest Focus

The UNFF would ideally provide an integrative platform on which the various specific features of old-growth forests for carbon, biodiversity, ecosystem functions and sustainable management could be balanced However, as mentioned above, the UNFF process has so far failed to achieve an international agreement on its implementation, and still has the weakest legal structure of all UN processes relevant for old-growth forests

20.4 Potential Role of Old-Growth Forests in Future

International Environmental Agreements

The high amount and long residence time of carbon stored in old-growth forests is not valued in climate policy (WBGU 1998; Schulze et al 2002) However, Article 4.1(d) of the UNFCCC (see above) includes the conservation of carbon in ecosys-tem pools In contrast, the link between the mitigation of climate change and the conservation of biodiversity remains vague and non-binding No priority or specific rule for old-growth forests can be derived from the mandate or commitments under the UNFCCC Therefore, expectations for direct support for the conservation of old-growth forests by future activities under the UNFCCC need to remain realistic The target entity of the UNFCCC will likely remain the change in carbon stocks in forests at the national level, rather than any management or conservation targets for

a specific forest type

Nevertheless, global negotiations on the REDD mechanism could give value to and allow a certain protection for forests in developing countries, where large areas

of old-growth forests exist The REDD mechanism will likely be implemented by a national approach (Mollicone et al 2007) so that countries receive incentives to reduce carbon losses from their forests The conservation of old-growth forests endangered by forest degradation and deforestation may be one of several promising approaches within broader national policies for sustainable resource management and good governance Such favourable national conditions go beyond the scope of individual international agreements and can therefore not be directly enforced at the international level However, old-growth forests need long-term strategies for their conservation Sustained incentives will be critical, but it is as yet unclear how this will work under the REDD mechanism (Mollicone et al 2007) Such incentives need to be financial and institutional and need to be associated with international progress control, ideally with sanctions for non-commitment

In parallel, a future climate change agreement under the UNFCCC may also be broadened towards a comprehensive inclusion of all forests For equity reasons, if developing countries take a national approach under a future climate change agreement, the industrial countries, to which the REDD mechanism does not apply, need to follow with similar efforts to protect their forest carbon stocks In addition, although deforestation in industrial countries is currently small, forest degradation through illegal or unsustainable logging and increased forest fires are not confined to developing countries (Mollicone et al 2007)

Old-growth forests, which are ‘‘managed’’ in the broad sense, are subject to the UNFCCC and CBD The streamlining of activities between the various conventions remains a major challenge Whilst the UNFCCC will address the national total forest carbon stock , most of the potential synergies with the CBD will arise from activities at a national to local level A network of forest protected areas such as proposed under the CBD could form part of a wider (voluntary) national portfolio of forest policies under the UNFCCC Old-growth forests declared as unmanaged, however, remain under the domain only of the CBD The ongoing efforts to

establish a global network of forest protected areas under the CBD (Schmitt et al 2007) can support old-growth forests but will also continue to rely on voluntary national commitments for the foreseeable future

The common denominator of the UNFCCC and CBD are the efforts towards sustainable forest management via the CBD mandate, the UNFCCC principles, the principles of the Marrakech Accords and the REDD ‘‘degradation’’ mechanism

At the project level, a common evaluation standard for climate change and biodiversity projects should be developed that takes into account the specific type

of activity, e.g land-use change, avoided deforestation, and the protection of carbon stocks, among which old-growth forests could be included (De Vrede et al 2005)

A system of multiple scores for various international environmental agreements would allow investors to choose the level of environmental integrity they wish to achieve in their projects (De Vrede et al 2005)

20.5 Conclusions

None of the UN processes was specifically targeted at old-growth forests The successional stage of a forest is not a criterion used to distinguish forest ecosystems

in national or international legal documents Instead, forests are holistically addressed or distinguished by the degree of human impact or indicators related to the environmental goals to be achieved Old-growth forests could emerge as a prime area of synergy between the UNFCCC and CBD as a cross-cutting issue The failure of the UNFF to move to action can be seen as a warning about the difficulty of establishing a legally binding international instrument exclusively for forests with their multiple local, national and international interest groups Using existing and emerging mechanisms under existing international environmental agreements for the protection of old-growth forests may turn out to be the most effective strategy for the near future However, existing agreements should not be overburdened with details that would make their implementation and control difficult and expensive

International environmental agreements can only set a broad legal framework of goals, principles and commitments for the conservation of old-growth forests and may offer support by international funding Old-growth forests will profit only when these agreements are implemented by the individual countries through national and local action Designing, implementing and maintaining adequate incentive schemes for the conservation of old-growth forests remains a critical challenge, which cannot be solved solely at the international level

References

CBD (1992) Convention on biological diversity (with annexes) Concluded at Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 United Nations Treaty Series 1760: I 30619