Commission calls for forest profit-sharing
Commission calls for forest profit-sharing
JAKARTA (JP): A group of environmental experts is calling on
governments in Asia that still have vast forestry resources to
establish a mechanism by which people living in or near forests
would share in the profits made by timber companies.
The World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development at
the end of their week-long meeting yesterday said that local
people should benefit from their forests.
"Through a system of titling tribal and community forest
lands, local communities should be given a fair share of forest
benefits such as profits earned by forest companies and those
using forest genetic materials in the pharmaceutical industry,"
the commission said in their statement yesterday.
The commission was set up in 1994 to address the issues of the
1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, such as
deforestation, degradation of the environment and their impact on
human welfare.
The commission includes 23 experts in various fields from
politics and sociology to economics. It is jointly chaired by
former Swedish Prime Minister Ola Ullsten and Indonesia's former
environmental minister Emil Salim.
This week's meeting in Jakarta was a follow-up to an earlier
meeting in Geneva in June 1995.
The meeting opened with a two-day public hearing involving
some 300 participants from Asia representing forestry activists,
timber companies, governments and non-governmental organizations.
This was followed by a two-day tour of the forests of East
Kalimantan and a two-day commission meeting.
The commission said that the public hearing also explored ways
of making sure that government policies directly involve local
peoples in the management of forest resources.
Along with the wide ranging NGO and commercial interests, the
hearing discussed how at the same time these forests can
contribute to environmental stability.
The commission acknowledged the paradox between environmental
conservation and government policies to exploit forest resources
as a means of poverty alleviation along with the day-to-day
interests of local people themselves.
Despite the conflicting concerns, the commission said "there
are possibilities for integrating conservation and developmental
objectives in ways that will cater to local peoples' needs,
commercial interests and conservationist concerns for protection
of environmental benefits."
The commission also met with tribal representatives from
India, Indonesia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines.
"It has listened to their frank descriptions of the ways in
which either national legislation, inappropriate forest laws or
the activities of large industrial companies have had a negative
impact on their families, in extreme cases resulting in
violations of human rights," it said.
It is hoped the commission can become a forum for dialog on
these issues, the statement added. (mds)