Submission to AHEG2 regarding the International Arrangement on Forests

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2 Norway Submission to AHEG2 regarding the International Arrangement on Forests Norway appreciates the opportunity to give additional input regarding the International Arrangement on Forests. Norway noted in the submission to AHEG1, that UNFF has been valuable as a policy forum for the promotion of sustainable forest management. We also recognized that the NLBI is the major achievement of the UNFF. Finally, we noted that the Collaborative Partnership on Forests has been a valuable partnership and as an integral part of the IAF to support the work of the Forum and to enhance cooperation and coordination. The Independent Assessment Report We welcome the report of the independent assessment team. We are, however, surprised of the extent to which this report brings up concrete proposals on the future of the IAF. The assessment goes beyond analyzing the current structures to being policy prescriptive, and has a quite strong emphasis on the institutional structures and the secretariats in shaping policy outcomes. Proposals on the future should certainly build on the findings of the independent assessment, but arise from deliberations among countries. The report carries highly political views on the future development of the discussion on forest governance at global level, and we are not ready to use these proposals as a basis for our considerations regarding the future IAF. Forests are important for basic economic, environmental and social benefits for society and are an integral part of the development of many different sectors. The assessment is underestimating the development of forest relevant issues in other fora. The recommendations in the report include renaming current structures and strengthening them. We do not think that creating new structures, commitments and institutions is what is needed. The ambition of the forest sector should rather be to define in which sectors there can be a need for principles for sustainable forest management, to efficiently implement sustainable management of forests and cooperate with other relevant sectors in these endeavours. One of the problems with the existing International Arrangement on Forests has been, according to the Independent Assessment Team, the lack of implementation at the national level. In our view, the UNFF has been a forum for policy development, which has to draw on other organizations and processes and scientific knowledge. This is, in our view, the purpose of the CPF. We do not see that the proposals of creating a forest assembly, ie strengthening of the existing UNFF would make any difference in promoting implementation. Furthermore, we do think that the forest sector to a greater extent has to acknowledge the potential of forest financing through other processes.

3 Developments outside UNFF We take the opportunity to highlight important achievements for forests outside the IAF, which should be taken into consideration. The review of the effectiveness of the IAF is an opportunity to look outside the IAF and reconsider IAF s role in the current international architecture. At the Climate Summit in New York in September, a declaration on forests was launched. The declaration is ambitious, and sets targets for both reduced deforestation and for reforestation. The declaration lays out a number of goals to address deforestation and promote restoration, and was endorsed by countries, companies, indigenous peoples and civil society organizations during the UN Climate Summit in September The commitments made by private companies included an announcement where three of the world s largest palm oil companies Wilmar, Golden Agri-Resources and Cargill, all of which recently announced deforestation-free sourcing policies and who jointly make up more than half of global palm oil trade committed to work together on implementation. This declaration is an important achievement for forests, and a possibility for the forest sector that must be taken advantage of. The New York declaration on forests should be taken into account at UNFF11. UNFF, as the global forum for forest policy development, should contribute to making the objectives of the New York declaration operational. We would also like to emphasize the development under the UNFCCC and CBD related to sustainable forest management. It is our view that the report does not sufficiently acknowledge these developments and the importance of these instruments for promoting sustainable forest management. The review of the IAF needs to take this into account when assessing the broader landscape for forest policy development at the global level. Any new commitments would need to be mutually supportive with existing rights and obligations under multilateral agreements relevant to forests. Financing of sustainable forest management The main element hampering the development and the effectiveness of the UNFF during the last years has been the discussion on financing sustainable forest management. Meanwhile, financial instruments for forests are developed outside the UNFF. The main achievement regarding forest financing during the last ten years has been the establishment of REDD+. The importance of forests for climate change mitigation has been duly recognized during the last years. However, the forest sector does not sufficiently contribute to the development of strategies for climate change mitigation.

4 UNFF should be less occupied with discussions creating separate financial mechanisms, be it fund or similar arrangements, and focus more on how it can contribute to existing financial arrangements that support sustainable forest management. We note that the development of an international framework for REDD+ is mentioned in the report, and this is positive. Still, we believe that the potential significance of REDD+ and other climate change mitigation mechanisms for forest financing might not be sufficiently reflected in the assessment of the current IAF, and neither in the proposals for future international arrangements on forests. As the current momentum of such mechanisms is maintained and further strengthened in the coming years, we believe that the UNFF in its work towards its objectives would have benefited substantially from a closer coordination with these processes. REDD+ is focused around the concept of payment for measured, reported and verified emission reductions stemming from the following five activities (as defined in Decision 1, CP16, paragraph 70, under the UNFCCC): Reducing emissions from deforestation Reducing emissions from forest degradation Conservation of forest carbon stocks Sustainable management of forests Enhancement of forest carbon stocks A phased approach is encouraged, where the focus is first on capacity building, strategy development etc., and later on implementation of measures and policies aimed at reducing emissions and enhancing removals of greenhouse gases from forests. The ultimate goal is, as mentioned, to provide the bulk of the financial contributions as payments ex-post for measured, reported and verified emission reductions (often termed results based payments ). REDD+ has generated increasing attention regarding the importance of forests for the world s climate and environment. Funding is being invested in e.g. strategy and policy development in the forest and land use sector in developing countries, increased capacity and ability to monitor forests, to enforce forest laws and regulations and improved forest management in general. We would also like to highlight the important role of the Global Environment Facility in financing sustainable management of forest. Since its inception in 1991, the GEF has financed over 300 projects and programs focusing on forest conservation and management in developing countries. The total GEF allocation to forest initiatives during this period amounts to more than $1.6 billion, leveraging $5 billion from other sources. Drawing on guidance from the three international conventions dealing with forests (CBD, UNFCCC and UNCCD), the GEF has funded projects that can be broadly classified into three categories:

5 1. Forest conservation (primarily protected areas and buffer zones) 2. Sustainable use of forests (forest production landscapes) 3. Sustainable forest management (addressing forests and trees in the wider landscape) The global community has goals and targets in place for sustainable management of forest. The SDGs as part of the post-2015 development agenda are also expected to contribute to this. The report from the Independent Assessment Team also recognizes that agreed targets in e.g. CBD and the REDD+ mechanism as well as the proposed SDGs overlaps with the existing goals of the UNFF. We would like to reiterate that we do not think that creating new structures, commitments and institutions is what is needed, but improved synergy and cooperation between forest related agreements and processes in order to strengthen national implementation and reaching global commitments on forests.