THE FOREST PRINCIPLES

At UNCED, governments failed to start a process for a UN convention on forests. Instead countries developed a series of principles for sustainable forest use. These principles acknowledge that forests are the source of wood, food and medicine, that they are rich storehouses of many biological products yet to be discovered. They act as reservoirs for water and for carbon. Moreover, forests are home to many species of wildlife and, with their peaceful greenery and sense of history, fulfil human cultural and spiritual needs.

The principles are legally non-binding and thus reflect the conflicts that surfaced in the discussions at UNCED. Countries like the US were intent on identifying the forests as part of the "global commons", not least to use them as carbon sinks to "soak up the excess carbon dioxide which they intended to go on pumping into the atmosphere with or without the Convention on Climate Change" (Jonathon Porritt). The South sees this as questioning their sovereignty over their forests resources, which they need for development and growth.