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Informing NGOs, MEPs, |
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FERN celebrates its
10th anniversary year |
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On 4 and 5 February 2005, the
government of the The framework for this meeting
was the Conference of Ministers for the Forests of Central Africa (COMIFAC),
and the meeting was preceded by the partners meeting of the Congo Basin
Forest Partnership (CBFP), launched by the The This provides a detailed and
agreed framework for regional integration and financing of conservation
initiatives for COMIFAC States, including Cameroon, the Republic of Congo,
Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, the Central
African Republic, Burundi, Rwanda and Sao Tome. A key priority of COMIFAC was
to generate funds required to enable implementation of its Convergence Plan. There was limited civil society
involvement during preparatory meetings running up to the
For official Summit outcomes,
see: www.congo-site.com. |
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EU
Action Plan on DG
Agriculture has released a communication calling for the development of an EU
Action Plan on Sustainable Forest Management. This was a long awaited
second step in the discussion on the EU Forestry Strategy. The communication
was put forward for the EU gobbledygook award of the Plain English
campaign. Apart
from its impressive gobbledygook, the Communication is weak on content. It
trumpets the achievements of the Forestry Strategy, which in the eyes of most
sectors is feeble. It also doesn't sufficiently address the issues raised in
a special report¹, which
concludes that the main funds spent on forestry measures - an estimated 4.7
billion for the period 2000 to 2006 - were often not properly monitored by
Members States or the Commission, weren't used effectively and weren't in
line with the aims of the EU Forestry Strategy or national forest plans,
which were often non-existent. For a detailed analysis of the report please
see the next issue of Forest Watch. It
is hoped that the action plan will make a difference to European forests by
shifting the balance from often uneconomically unsustainable forests, with
more emphasis on non-timber forest products, and ecological and social
values. The forestry industry has already presented its vision of what should
be in the action plan, available from FERN. It is now up to the environmental
and social NGOs
to present their ideas. (1) Special Report
No 9/2004, European Court of Auditors |
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LIFE+:
a new hope for nature? There is a
possibility that nature protection will get a positive injection under LIFE
+, the funding programme for environmental projects
for 2007-2012. LIFE+ is the follow-up for LIFE, which funds environmental
projects and nature protection until 2006. The proposal for the new LIFE+
regulation didn’t include nature protection. The plan was to
store this under other funding programmes, but gaps
remained. Now Member States have stressed the importance of referring to
nature protection in the new LIFE+ programme and
have suggested that a separate component for forests is included in LIFE+. The debate between
the Commission and |
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Illegal
logging in Georgia The
chairman of the Forestry Department of Georgia, Mr Bidzina Giorgobiani, said he
fled This
development is part of a pattern of corruption in |
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EU
wins Cotonou agreement FERN congratulates the
winner of the renewed Cotonou Agreement - the EU. The EU, Africa, Caribbean
Pacific (ACP) Partnership Agreement was originally signed in At a meeting on 18 February
2005, ACP countries were opposed to the inclusion of a reference to the fight
against terrorism and to tying the non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction and the ratification of the International Criminal Court to
eligibility for EU aid. Surprisingly, a final agreement was put on the table the
following week (28 February), with the only compensation to ACP countries
an EU pledge to make additional funding available to offset potential
negative effects of its Economic Partnership Agreements within the region (see FW
nos. 64 and 72). With all its energy channelled into addressing the above conditions, the EU
didn’t have time to ensure its commitments to sustainable development
were reflected in the revised agreement, as requested by the ACP-EU Joint
Parliamentary Assembly in October 2003 (see FW no. 79). Country environmental
profiles - indispensable tools to define programming co-operation priorities
- will have to wait at least five more years to become part of the country
analysis. The revised agreement is due
to be signed in June 2005. |
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NEWS
IN BRIEF Tsunami coastline damage A
UN report on the tsunami (February 2005) reveals that coastlines already
damaged by pollution and inappropriate land use suffered more than those with healthy
coral reefs, mangroves, vegetated dunes and robust coastal forest¹. The report shows that healthy mangrove
forests acted like shields and bore the brunt of the tsunami (see FW no. 92). 1
http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/GEO%20YEARBOOK%202004%20(ENG).pdf Employment for women and national parks
in Cameroonian
restriction policies in national parks fail to stop poaching and increase
poverty among women, says CIFOR report¹.
There are two main ways in which women are affected by these restrictions: by
putting pressure on traders – largely work carried out by women in are
forced to buy directly from hunters. By closing roads running through
protected areas to keep out poachers female farmers are prevented from
sending their crops to the market. Policy makers need to be reminded that
depriving women of their income creates poverty and undermines their capacity
to feed their family. In turn, poverty is a major contributor to poaching and
environmental degradation. 1 Report at:
r.koesnadi@cgiar.org, http://www.cifor.org/ |
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7 April: Seminar
illegal logging, 19/20 April: NGO Meeting on FSC Plantations Review
Process. 19-21 April: ITTO workshop on approaches to
certification (www.itto.org.jp). 29 April: Stakeholder meeting on the development
and review of EU activities under Forest Focus, |
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EU Forest Watch is published by FERN,
the forest campaign group focusing on EU policy. |
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