Commonwealth Forestry Conference

**1**

‘There is no clock in the forest’, says Orlando to Rosalind in Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

The Forest of Arden, as I remember, was a place of timeless goodness, a pastoral idyll, a place of the natural order of things.

You may very quickly gather that I am not a specialist forester ...

And, indeed, that I am conscious of being part of an exceptional gathering of those who are.

But I take issue with Orlando in saying that there is a clock in the forest.

It is a clock which is ticking very fast towards the moment when the lungs of the world collapse – its forests.

But like Orlando, I have come to see the many sides to the forest.

There is financial and practical value in a dead tree, to be sure, and we will of course continue to cut trees down.

But there is surely the case that a tree is worth more alive, than dead.

That we do not live this truth is the blight of civilisation.

And if that argument becomes hard to quantify, then I think that it returns, very simply, to the value of life itself.

The idea of forests and the idea of life cannot be separated.

So – to Chairperson Warhurst, Minister Cunningham, members of the Commonwealth Forestry Association, and to all of you gathered here today, I thank you warmly for this invitation to address you.

As you yourselves come of age with your 18th Commonwealth Forestry Conference, I come to my first.

And in fact today I have received a double-dose of Commonwealth convening power, having just addressed a very impressive Commonwealth Agriculture Conference this morning.

I understand that it is 36 years since the Commonwealth Forestry Conference was last held in the UK, under the theme of The Forest and our Global Environment.

How prescient you were in 1974: yes, the environment is a truly global resource; and yes, environments and ecosystems know no international borders.

Forests do not discriminate between nations in giving us the oxygen we need to breathe, and the shelter and resources we need to thrive.

Fred Allicock, an elder of the Makushi tribe that live within the Iwokrama rainforest in Guyana, sums it up rather well:

“The forest is our supermarket, our bank, our pharmacy.

Everything we need, we get from the forest.

We hunt, we use timber, fruit for medicine, vines for furniture and bows and arrows.”

Then five years ago, the Conference was held in Colombo, quite soon after the tsunami.

It was at a time when the world had felt the power of nature, but it had been reminded, too, that if it protects its natural environments, they, in turn, will protect it.

I am reminded of an International Union for the Conservation of Nature study comparing the experiences of two coastal villages hit by the Sri Lankan tsunami: one where the coastal mangroves had been left intact; and one where they had been deforested for the purposes of tourism and shrimp farming.

The result was that two people died in the first; and 6,000 in the second.

This is the dilemma that faces forest peoples around the world.

It demonstrates the potential conflict between economic development and environmental preservation.

We therefore work towards a middle path, that of environmentally sustainable development.

The focus of Colombo 2005 was the way that millions of people in the Commonwealth are directly reliant on the resources that only the forest can provide.

In India alone, it is estimated that 275 million people are dependent on forest resources.

Globally, the figure reaches one billion.

That conference showed how forestry is not just an environmental concern, but – especially in the developing world – it is an important way to achieve progress towards the first of the Millennium Development Goals: the fight against poverty.

I cite those two previous conferences to show that this exceptional assembly has a track record in grappling with issues, and bringing knowledge and solutions.

It spans a Commonwealth of 54 countries on 6 continents – countries rich and poor, large and small.

The Commonwealth is home to around one-fifth of the world’s forests.

It includes three of the ten most forested countries in the world – Canada, Australia and India.

From the mangrove forests of our Small Island Developing States to the Boreal forests of Canada, a quarter of the Commonwealth’s forests are ‘primary forests’, with the highest levels of biodiversity and carbon stocks.

It is home to some of the best – and the worst – forestry practice in the world.

The Commonwealth is the world in microcosm, but perhaps a rather better form of world: a world bound not just by language, or history, or institutions, but by shared values, and a shared concern for those who need it most.

In other words, it is the place to discuss both one of the world’s great resources – forests – and also one of, if not the, great existential threat to the future of the world today: climate change.

This global community is fighting many wars on many fronts.

But there is no greater fight than climate change, where the battle for the forest represents the front line, and the very thick of the action.

Climate change may be the stuff of obtuse and protracted negotiation in international conferences, but – in Commonwealth countries like the Maldives, Kiribati and Bangladesh – it is quite literally a matter of having your head above or below water.

Or in drought-ridden Kenya or desert-encroached Nigeria or Namibia, it is a matter of having food and water.

The consequences of our environmental vandalism make ever more terrifying reading.

We are guilty as charged, but can still salvage a living through wisdom, which we have imperilled through negligence.

So it is my hope that the consequences of this conference make for enlightening reading, and action.

This week, you can build on the knowledge, expertise and shared understanding that can make the Commonwealth family one of the leading resources in this field.

Confucius said this, among many pithy proverbs: ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.’

I duly planted my tree this morning, in Prince’s Street Gardens.

And I would urge us all over the course of the next week, to be planting the seeds of new and innovative ideas that in 20 years time may bear fantastic fruit.

**2**

Before we seek solutions, I think it pays to establish the nature of the challenge of forests and climate change, even if I am preaching to the converted.

Forests, we know, represent almost three-quarters of the world’s terrestrial carbon.

Cut them down, and they are responsible for almost a quarter of man-made CO² emissions.

Tackle deforestation, and we go a long way towards tackling climate change.

Forests and their ecosystems also play a buffering role in the face of climate change.

When farming systems fail, for instance, they provide a safety net or a coping strategy for rural populations, providing both food, shelter and alternative economic activities.

Meanwhile, as we have seen, mangrove forests reduce cyclone impacts in coastal areas; and forestation reduces landslide risks in mountainous areas, where rain would otherwise wash away fertile soil, and pollute water systems.

We may have one-fifth of the world’s forest cover in the Commonwealth, but we account for one-third of what is destroyed every year as well, or more precisely 25,000 square kilometres.

Our deforestation rate is double the global average, and rising – while it falls in the rest of the world.

The problem is particularly acute in West Africa and parts of South East Asia, where weak governance and a lack of environmental enforcement lead to illegal or unmonitored logging.

In addition, in many regions the lure of big business and short-term profits has led to pristine primary forests being replaced by plantation forests that provide few of the benefits of the original forest, particularly for local communities.

The fact will be familiar to you that by 2030 we may well have lost as much as 80% of the forests that covered the earth in 1947.

With the loss of these forests, we lose thousands of species on a weekly basis, including those as yet unknown to science.

Given that many of our most significant modern medicines are derived from plants, we may never even know the value of what we have lost.

Quinine from the bark of the tree helped us begin the fight against Malaria – what else might be out there?

And as we lose our forests, we accelerate the climatic changes that destroy our other natural environments, our glaciers, grassland and coral reefs.

I am only quoting reputable sources, such as the University of New South Wales, in recalling the apocalyptic claim that we are very likely going through the sixth great wave of extinction, losing species at an unprecedented rate.

So there is a clock in Arden, and its hands are speeding.

At what point does the sustainability of our natural environment go beyond the point of no return?

Is there something to the chilling thought in James Martin’s book ‘The Meaning of the 21^st Century’ that humankind as a species is losing the instinct for self-preservation?

**3**

And so: how are we to respond?

If policy has failed us to date, how can it be rectified?

Here are just four broad areas, and I know you will examine each in the days ahead.

First, we need to put more effort into giving a financial value to the environmental goods and services that forests provide.

Here, perhaps, we are trying to quantify the unquantifiable.

This valuation goes beyond the products we can touch and see, to the more tangential but vital benefits I just mentioned, such as watershed management and carbon sequestration.

How much is it worth to prevent soil erosion, or to have clean drinking water, or to halt climate change?

Of course, it is priceless, and it comes back to where I began: in considering its value, we are considering the value of life.

So we seek the financing for the sustainable management of forests – for rangers, scientists, researchers and more.

It is about working together to ensure that the custodians of forests – the people who live in them – have a realistic choice.

The $100 they may receive for a dead tree may start to seem insignificant and a pittance, if the returns are realised.

We have to show, financially, that trees are worth more alive than dead.

The recent UNEP publication on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity can help us here, as it goes some way to putting a value on these more ethereal benefits.

Second, we must strike a balance between different types of land use, and I said as much to the Commonwealth Agriculture Conference this morning.

I said then that we need to promote farming practices that are sustainable, and that don’t require increasing expanses of forest to be chopped down for pasture or agricultural production.

Here, we can draw inspiration from our own Commonwealth pioneer Wangari Maathai, and the Green Belt movement.

Such a movement showed that we do not have to choose between forests or agriculture, and that - in synergy - both can thrive.

The ‘green belts’ had the advantages of providing shade and windbreaks, facilitating soil conservation, and improving the lives of thousands of rural Kenyan women.

As Wangari herself said: “It's the little things citizens do. That's what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.”

Third, in full recognition that we will and must continue to harvest wood, then we must do so conscientiously.

International labelling schemes, such as those of the Forestry Stewardship Council, are obviously part of the solution.

But the costs of associating with such schemes can often be prohibitive in developing countries.

Often, the industry is seen as being more concerned with their use as a marketing tool, rather than in ensuring that they genuinely improve environmental standards

Developing countries and the people who live in the forests must be central to these discussions.

There is also the need to engage and educate consumers to ensure that they understand the issues relating to our forests and their sustainability, before buying certain products.

Fourth, we need to create yet more ways of maximising the use of our existing forests, without cutting them down.

We should explore all methods of making money from forests – and I alight on one area of potential: that is, sustainable forestry tourism of the type that we have seen in countries such as Ecuador, Costa Rica and Guyana.

Above and beyond the myths and fairytales enjoyed by people like me, forests remain an object of fascination for many people, who very much want to visit them.

**4**

And what, specifically, can the Commonwealth bring to the equation?

Whether through the Commonwealth Secretariat ...

... or the Commonwealth Foundation, which mobilises civil society involvement ...

... or the Commonwealth Forestry Association, especially in its outreach work with younger people.

We have all these excellent networks and skills – how are we best to use them?

Before I begin to answer that question, may I briefly issue an invitation for you all to do so yourselves....?

On the instruction of our Heads of Government, we are about to launch an Eminent Persons Group, whose task is to tell us how we can sharpen the impact, strengthen the networks, and raise the profile of the Commonwealth.

The Group will warmly welcome your views.

But let me now address the contribution of the Commonwealth in the realms of forestry.

I refer especially to its role as a founder member of the Iwokrama International Centre in Guyana: set up in 1996 as a model for the world on responsible and innovative ways of keeping a pristine 370,000 square kilometre rainforest alive and well, as a habitat for humans, for animals, for plants, and a source of biodiversity, carbon sequestering, and economic activity.

The concept is a truly sustainable forest – where conservation, environmental balance and economic use can be mutually reinforcing.

And the results have been impressive.

You can read them in their annual report, and you can discuss it with them in person in the coming days:

Products forested in Iwokrama have received FSC certification and recognition.

Only three trees per hectare are harvested, and each hectare will not be visited again for another 60 years.

Meanwhile investment in infrastructure has made Iwokrama a world class tourist destination.

Iwokrama also acts as a dedicated training centre, targeting community leaders and representatives of Government, NGO and Amerindian groups, to build capacity on the science of climate change, the role of forests, sustainable forest management, ecosystem services, and collaborative management.

The Centre now also has a thriving science committee, undertaking groundbreaking and internationally-recognised research in the measurement of the stress-inducing impacts of climate change, and evaluating the contribution of ecosystem services to the forest’s overall monetary value.

What is more, Iwokrama will share its findings worldwide.

In turn, these Iwokrama findings will be able to feed into a new development, authorised by Heads of Government when they last met in Trinidad in November, to create a massive Commonwealth portal website.

It will be called the Commonwealth Partnership Platform Portal, or CP3.

The CP3 will be three things, and more: a source of information; a conduit to a network; and a place to ‘do business’ – to find a partner, launch a project, or make a connection.

Three initial windows of the site are currently being developed (broadly, on governance, youth, and education) – but I can envisage the prospect of a virtual Commonwealth forestry network that could ultimately bring together the public and private sectors and civil society, to share and debate this issue.

When the time comes, I would like this audience to be involved in the creation of a CP3 forestry window.

From the sharing of practical knowledge, to the lobbying for best international policy....

In 1989 Commonwealth Heads of Government issued the Langkawi Declaration on the Environment – a document ahead of its time, which was instrumental in the framing of the Rio Declaration of three years later.

It promised to promote afforestation and sustainable forest management in developing countries, and the conservation of virgin forest to protect biodiversity.

Our Heads reaffirmed this commitment in the Lake Victoria Commonwealth Climate Change Plan in Uganda in 2007, and also during their last meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009.

Collectively, they resolved last November to work towards, I quote, ‘improved land use management, including conservation and sustainable use of forest resources’.

Further still, we were instrumental in Port of Spain in pushing for rich countries to assume their responsibilities in the fight against climate change, on the very eve of the Copenhagen Summit, and with Ban Ki Moon and the French and Danish leaders in our midst.

They rightly saw the sheer reach and sway of this association.

A little further back, in 2008, Commonwealth Environment Ministers meeting in Nairobi discussed the potential for forest carbon finance.

They agreed on the need for stronger technical and institutional capacity, to bring about more effective land-use management policies, zoning and demarcation.

They said that assistance was needed to help developing countries carry out assessments on the drivers of deforestation.

This week, we hope that the various Commonwealth organisations here in Edinburgh can take these issues further.

**5**

Finding solutions to the world’s challenges can only be based on shared human values, and a commitment to inclusive decision making.

This maintains that solutions must embrace all.

Today I address you ‘the morning after the G20 summit before’: some of you may have read me in the press, and here I quote from the Op-ed piece written with Secretary-General Diouf of the Francophonie, which has appeared all over the world, entitled ‘The Obligations of Leadership’.

“If the G20 really does represent the changing face of power in the world, then its first priority is to represent the silent voice of those without that power. Some 90 per cent of the world's GDP is assembled at the G20 summit in Toronto on June 26, but 90 per cent of its countries are absent.”

This is the value of the Commonwealth – we can speak for all.

We will continue to work together for our members, and use our Environmental Good Offices to come up with new ideas, build consensus, and identify areas where we can offer practical assistance.

And ultimately, we should be aware that the judges of our action or inaction will not be our peers, but our children and our grandchildren.

We should not be found wanting: we can at least bequeath - to those who will follow - an environment worth saving.

We have come a long way since the first Commonwealth Forestry Conference in 1920.

Indeed we came a long way a few weeks ago in Oslo – when 58 countries (including 15 from the Commonwealth) formed the REDD+ Partnership – their aim being to catalyse the transfer of knowledge and technology, transfer, capacity-building, and best practice in mitigation.

They saw $4 billion pledged in the process.

It means that we are optimistic, in sincerely hoping for a successful REDD+ outcome at COP16, in Cancun in December.

If our instinct for self-preservation is flagging, let us revive it.

In thanking His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales not just for his ongoing work in this area but for his video message earlier, I reiterate that call to arms.

We must not cease in our efforts to establish the value of trees that are alive, not dead.

The Commonwealth is large enough to make its voice heard, and small enough to be innovative.

So Orlando was blissfully unaware of the urgency; and Confucius knew better.

Now is indeed the time to plant our own trees.

It is also the time to think long and hard and responsibly about how many we cut down.

ENDS