Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 2 • Number 6 • 4th April 2002
CBD and UNFF Consider Certification as a Tool for Sustainable Forestry
CBD and UNFF consider certification as a tool for sustainable forestry
At their sixth meeting, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will consider recommendations by a CBD expert panel to adopt better economic policies to combat global deforestation, and to ensure that market mechanisms are complemented by other measures, such as certification, legislation and regulation. The use of certification systems in sustainable forest management as well as the relevance of trade policies were also discussed at the Second Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF-2) in New York on 4-15 March.
COP-6 to discuss economic policies and forest certification
According to recommendations of the CBD Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Forest Biological Diversity, better economic policies are required to make sustainable forest management profitable as ecologically sustainable forests are, at least in the short term, generally less profitable in monetary terms than ecologically unsustainable ones. Thus, non-timber benefits from sustainable forests, such as carbon storage, watershed protection and non-timber forest resources, must have a market price that exceeds this loss of profit in order to be “competitive”. The panel furthermore states that establishing “enforceable and transferable property rights for individuals or communities is likely to be an important precondition for sustainable long-term conservation and use”. Also, market mechanisms should be complemented by other measures, including certification. Outlining suggested priorities in the expanded work programme on forest biodiversity, the CBD Executive Secretariat also highlighted the implementation of “voluntary third-party credible forest certification schemes” as one of the main tools to combat trade in illegally harvested forest resources to support the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity.
Working Group 1 of COP-6 will discuss forest biodiversity in the afternoon of 8 April and on the morning of 9 April.
Certification and trade also feature at UNFF-2
In their Ministerial Declaration, delegates at UNFF-2 stressed the importance of voluntary certification schemes in achieving the objective of sustainable forest management. Several delegates pointed out, however, that such schemes should not be used as a barrier to trade for tropical timber. Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Primary Industries, Datuk Anifah Aman, for instance, said that “unending allegations, attacks and misinterpretations” had led an increasing number of municipalities and local governments in developed countries to ban or restrict the use of tropical timber. “Timber certification should not be used as a non-tariff barrier, as it is against the principle of free trade,” he added. Issues related to certification were also discussed at a WTO side-event to UNFF-2, where the WTO Trade and Environment Division outlined how forestry may be relevant to the WTO. While the WTO membership had not made forestry a priority issue as yet, the secretariat representative pointed out that eco-labelling has been discussed more generally at the WTO Committee for Trade and Environment (CTE) and the CTE was mandated by the Doha Work Programme to give particular attention to labelling requirements for environmental purposes in its work (para. 32, iii).
In their Decision on combating deforestation and forest degradation, delegates furthermore urged countries to promote sustainable forest management “through trade policies and practices, including in the WTO”, and “to negotiate in the context of the Doha Work Programme” in order to implement Intergovernmental Panel on Forests / Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IPF/IFF) proposals for action. This compromise text was suggested by South Africa in an effort to resolve the disagreement between developing countries on the one side, who proposed the inclusion of references to the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers on forest products in the context of the WTO Doha agenda, and developed countries on the other side who were opposed to such references. The IPF/IFF proposals of action were prepared to support the efforts of UNFF in developing a plan of action for the implementation of IPF and IFF proposals, including financial provisions.
UNFF-3, to be held from 26 May to 6 June 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland, will focus on the economic aspects of forests, including the overall role of trade in forest products and services in optimising the economic functions of forests in full support of sustainable forest management.
Why are trade and certification important to sustainable forest management?
Being included in the UNFF’s multi-year programme of work and plan of action to implement the IPF/IFF proposals, trade will be one of the common items to be considered at each of its sessions. The IPF/IFF has identified trade as one of the important tools for the implementation of sustainable forest management, as the buying and selling of wood and non-wood forest products and services have a significant effect on sustainable forest management, forest harvesting and the value of forest products. One of the main items of discussion in the context of international trade is certification/labelling of forest products. It has been suggested that certification might provide an incentive to manage forests sustainably, as products certified to come from sustainably managed forests might experience an increase in market share and suppliers might receive a price premium for selling a “green product”. Western Europe constitutes the biggest market for certified products. Similarly, most certification schemes for sustainable forestry are found in European countries, partly because developing countries often lack the resources to implement such schemes. As a result, many developing countries are concerned that their non-certified products might be discriminated against and that thus, certification and labelling schemes might constitute a non-tariff barrier to trade. Others, however, argue that certification schemes are usually voluntary and that countries are not forced to comply with them.
In the multilateral trading system, labelling is generally covered by the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) which allows governments to introduce regulations if they are necessary to fulfil legitimate objectives, including “protection of human health or safety, animal or plant life or health, or the environment”. WTO rules also state that Members should give the same treatment to “like” products, i.e. they should not discriminate against a product on the basis of the process and production methods (PPMs) used. As eco-labelling schemes are often based on such PPM criteria (eg on sustainable forest management), some argue that they might not be compatible with WTO rules, at least in cases where they are mandatory. While to date no mandatory labelling scheme has been challenged at the WTO, the question of voluntary PPM-based eco-labelling was addressed in the context of the US-Tuna dispute where the GATT [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade] Panel found that a voluntary US labelling scheme certifying that tuna was fished in a way not harmful to dolphins was compatible with trade rules. While the US-Tuna Panel Report was not adopted, it is likely to influence future discussions on this issue.
Additional Resources
Secretariat’s note (UNEP/CBD/COP/6/17/Add.1) and other documents on forest biological diversity, http://www.biodiv.org/meetings/cop-06.asp. Report of the CBD expert panel (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/7/6), http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.asp?lg=0&wg=sbstta-07.
Note by UN Economic and Social Council on “Trade and Sustainable Forest Management” (E/CN.18/2002).
“Trading Away the Last Ancient Forests,” Richard Tarasofsky and Stefanie Pfahl, Greenpeace International, 2002. A summary of this report is available at http://www.greenpeace.org/politics/wto/Doha/reports/forestsummary.pdf. For hard copies or pdf version of the study contact juergen.knirsch@greenpeace.de.
For daily coverage of UNFF, see IISD Linkages.
“Deforestation crisis linked to market distortions,” CBD, March 2002; “Summary of the Second Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests,” ENB, 18 March 2002. “In-Session Seminar: Certification and Forest Product Labelling: A Review,” FAO, 2000 (FO:APFC/2000/10).