USIA - Text: Claussen Statement in Athens on Forest Preservation, 97-05-30
From: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Home Page at <http://www.usia.gov>
TEXT: CLAUSSEN STATEMENT IN ATHENS ON FOREST PRESERVATION
(EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL MAY 30 AT 1000 GMT) (2290)
(May 30 statement at Pre-Earth Summit Forest Gathering)
Athens -- "The world's forests are in serious trouble and require urgent
international attention. Our challenge is clearly not whether to protect
forests but how," says Eileen B. Claussen, assistant secretary of state for
oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs.
Claussen's statement was delivered to the Pre-Earth Summit Forest Gathering
in Athens May 30 by Thomas J. Miller, charges d'affaires of the U.S.
Embassy.
"One area demanding immediate attention is the establishment of national
networks of forest reserves to protect biodiversity," Claussen said,
praising the work of the World Wildlife Fund in getting governments to
focus on this issue.
She said the United States has prohibited timber harvest in 47 million
acres of forest, but added, "there is no question that the U.S. should do
more, both to guarantee the integrity of existing reserves and to protect
additional areas."
Claussen also acknowledged that "the circumstances of individual countries
are different." In the developing world, where reserves of primary forest
remain, many countries "are in dire economic straits, making the easily
convertible timber resource very difficult to resist.... Establishing
protected forest reserves is therefore not always an easy concept for these
nations. To be successful requires enormous political will, the support of
local stakeholders, and the promise of some form of economic development
and improved prosperity."
She urged the developed world to help find ways to help such countries
"meet the basic needs of people. This means helping stabilize fast-growing
populations, finding more efficient ways of growing food, and developing
new sources of energy for rural communities."
Following is the text of Claussen's statement as prepared for delivery.
(Begin text)
Statement of Eileen B. Claussen
Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International
Environmental and Scientific Affairs
to the Pre-Earth Summit Forest Gathering
Athens, Greece
May 30, 1997
(Delivered by Thomas J. Miller, Charges d'affaires, U.S. Embassy)
Thank you. Your Royal Highness, distinguished ministers, ladies and
gentlemen: Ms. Eileen Claussen, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for
Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, regrets that
she is unable to be here today. It is my great privilege to be with you in
her stead to read her statement.
Five years ago, more than 100 heads of state convened in Rio to examine the
issues of environmental protection and sustainable development. One month
from today, world leaders will again gather, this time in New York City, to
revisit this common cause.
The high-level attention next month's meeting is attracting is in itself
significant. It demonstrates that the Rio Summit was not a passing fad but
rather the beginning of a long-term commitment by governments to deal at
the highest levels with the environmental challenges facing our planet.
And we have made some progress. Many countries, including the United States,
have developed their own blueprints for sustainable development. Landmark
agreements on banning the ocean dumping of radioactive waste, protecting
shared fish stocks, and curtailing land-based sources of marine pollution
give us powerful new tools for safeguarding the oceans. Continued adherence
to, and improvement of, the Montreal Protocol is already showing signs of
reversing the trend of ozone depletion.
But we have also learned how difficult these environmental problems are.
While Rio was long on rhetoric about creating a more sustainable future, it
is clear that we are not even close to doing so. Most indicators point to a
continuing deterioration of the global environment. Rapid population growth
persists. Greenhouse gas emissions escalate. Forest loss remains severe.
Countless species continue to go extinct.
Next month you will hear lots of theories for why we are not doing better,
and there will probably be some truth in all of them. Certainly, for
example, many developed countries have not lived up to promises of
increased development assistance and technology transfer. And many
developing countries have not lived up to the policy reforms they agreed to
undertake. Nevertheless, I believe the real answer is far more complicated.
Everyone wants a clean environment, and every politician wants to promise
one. And that is what happened at Rio -- lots of promises, limited analysis,
and expectations of short-term results. Whether climate change or the
proliferation of toxic chemicals, forest depletion or water quality,
today's environmental concerns are among the most complex problems we face.
Each requires sustained effort over the long-term.
And, frankly, we cannot tackle all of them at once. Even the largest
nations have neither the resources nor the ability to do so. Instead, we
must identify realistic priorities that reflect the most urgent challenges
and set ourselves about achieving them.
As we approach the New York summit, then, I believe we need a different
mindset. Rather than dwelling on the pomp and circumstance and the lofty
rhetoric, we must set ourselves soberly about the task of attaining
concrete results.
Nowhere is this more true than on the issue of forests. Their importance is
hard to overstate. They protect biodiversity and purify water. They provide
revenue and livelihood and produce the raw material for new medicines. They
prevent erosion and put away carbon. Forests, in short, are indispensable
to mankind.
Yet today we face the very real risk that before we ever understand the
full importance of forest systems, we will have irrevocably damaged them.
Between 1990 and 1995, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates a
net loss of 56.3 million hectares of forests worldwide, equivalent to an
area the size of France.
What's going on? Between 1970 and 1994, global consumption of wood
increased by 36 percent. And the FAO predicts that demand will continue to
rise through 2010. Couple this with the pressures on forests from expanding
human populations, subsistence agriculture, large-scale industrial and
infrastructure projects, and national policies that subsidize forest
conversion to other uses, and it is easy to put the pieces together.
Consider the issue of fuelwood. Fuelwood is the main or sole source of
domestic energy for two-fifths of the world population, and demand for it
is increasing 1.2 percent annually.
And the problem is not as simple as deforestation alone. In Europe and
North America -- where forest cover is largely stable -- air borne
pollutants, pests, and uncontrolled forest fires are among the factors that
severely degrade the quality of existing forests. In Poland, for example,
41 to 60 percent of the forests are either moderately or severely
defoliated or dead. Here in Greece, the figure is between 11 and 25
percent.
In short, the world's forests are in serious trouble and require urgent
international attention. Our challenge is clearly not whether to protect
forests but how.
The focus of this meeting is on the importance of establishing forest
reserves, and I will go into greater detail on that subject in a moment. As
many of you know, however, the international debate on forests right now is
centered on whether to proceed in negotiating a legally binding forest
convention, and I feel it is important to briefly state the United States
position in this regard.
Let me be clear. We feel strongly that to proceed in trying to negotiate a
convention at this point is exactly the wrong way to go. No consensus at
all exists among countries as to what a convention should be set up to do --
even among those who support it. Governments are today so far apart that
convening formal negotiations, we believe, is a recipe for years of
fruitless dialogue, likely to produce a lowest common denominator result.
We have neither the time, the resources, nor the energy to devote to such
an endeavor.
Instead, the United States proposes that we channel our efforts into
several targeted areas where we believe progress is necessary and
achievable. The recommendations of the recently completed Intergovernmental
Panel on Forests give us ample grist to choose from. Specifically we have
called for a seven-point plan on forests.
Our goals are to hold governments accountable for how they manage their
forests, boost the capacity of individual nations for sustainable forest
management, invigorate the private sector to be better forest stewards,
expand global monitoring and assessment of forest conditions, protect
forest biodiversity, promote market mechanisms and economic instruments
that support sustainable forest management, and build basic democratic
principles into forest policy decision-making at every level.
We do not need a convention to accomplish these objectives. Existing
bilateral, regional, and global structures give us the tools. What we
require is a combination of political will, adequate resources, and a
healthy dose of cooperation.
We absolutely agree that one area demanding immediate attention is the
establishment of national networks of forest reserves to protect biodiversity.
I applaud the excellent work that the World Wildlife Fund has done to call
attention to this issue and to get governments around the world to focus on
this pressing need.
The United States has designated 47 million acres of forest in which timber
harvest is prohibited. This is one-fourth of the world forest area
officially accorded such protection and represents 6 percent of our total
forest area. This, however, this does not tell the whole story. While the
U.S. has 7 percent of the world's forests, we have 40 percent of the
world's privately-owned forests. In fact, non-federal owners control 66
percent of all U.S. forest land. Millions of additional acres have been set
aside by these forest owners, and without their efforts we would have no
chance to protect the range of forest biodiversity in the United States.
There is no question that the U.S. should do more, both to guarantee the
integrity of existing reserves and to protect additional areas. Decades of
fire suppression have exposed millions of acres to exotic species and
disease as well as rendered them vulnerable to particularly catastrophic
fires which destroy rather than renew ecological systems. Areas high in
biodiversity -- most notably our few remaining stands of primary forest as
well as critical roadless areas -- still lack key protections. Federal
subsidies continue to encourage the construction of logging roads at
artificially low prices. We are working to address these concerns by, among
other things, attempting to bring an ecosystem management approach to
federal forest lands and to encourage private sector actions to better
protect and manage forest areas.
I cite the U.S. example in this level of detail for two reasons. First, I
think it is critical for all countries to let the world know what they are
doing. Second, I feel it is important to stress that the circumstances of
individual countries are different. As you can see with the U.S., this is
certainly true in the case of forest ownership. Let's look for a minute at
forest type. Almost every forest we see in the U.S. and Europe, including
our protected areas, have already been cut down -- at least once.
That is not true in much of the developing world, where vast reserves of
primary forest remain. It is these forests that are disappearing the
fastest, and also that are the richest in biodiversity. Yet, for obvious
reasons, many nations are clamoring to do the same thing we did, namely to
liquidate these resources for short-term economic gain. A number of these
countries are in dire economic straits, making the easily convertible
timber resource very difficult to resist. Furthermore, land cleared of
trees is often a much more valuable asset to poor farmers and rich land
owners alike. Look almost anywhere in the third world, and one finds the
price of cleared land much higher than that of forested land.
Establishing protected forest reserves is therefore not always an easy
concept for these nations. To be successful requires enormous political
will, the support of local stakeholders, and the promise of some form of
economic development and improved prosperity.
If we are to expect these nations to set up the parks and wilderness areas
that we have come to take for granted, we must find ways of helping them
deal with these issues. And the United States is actively working to do so.
Through its Parks in Peril project, the U.S. Agency for International
Development has strengthened the management and infrastructure of 26
forested parks in Latin America covering almost 6 million hectares. Through
our support of the Activities Implemented Jointly initiative under the
Framework Convention on Climate Change, we have endorsed forest protection
projects around the world, including one in Bolivia which will protect and
preserve more than 1.5 million hectares of land while sequestering 14.5
million metric tons of carbon. Through a State Department bilateral
initiative, we have helped Suriname develop the capacity to consider the
advisability of massive timber concessions in its pristine forests.
The United States sees forests and their protection as an essential
investment in the future well-being of people and the planet. But we must
remember that half the world's population is concerned with the immediate
need for food, fuelwood, and shelter. That is why to succeed in protecting
forests, we must all work together to meet the basic needs of people. This
means helping stabilize fast-growing populations, finding more efficient
ways of growing food, and developing new sources of energy for rural
communities.
The great American conservationist and forest advocate John Muir once wrote,
"When we try to pick anything out by itself, we find it hitched to
everything else in the universe." That in many ways is the essence of
sustainable development, and it is certainly the essence of our common
endeavor to protect the world's forests.
Thank you very much.
(End text)
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