Global Convention on Forests

Box 2: From the Idea of a Global Convention on Forests to the Adoption of the Forest Principles One of the five outcomes of UNCED was the adoption of the Non-Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of all Types of Forests, also known as the Forests Principles. Although the issue of forests was on the international policymaking agenda for nearly two decades prior to Rio, only one legally-binding agreement, the 1983 International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), existed on forests prior to UNCED. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many countries, including those of the G-7, began calling for a global convention on forests. Significant divisions between developed and developing countries polarized the negotiations in the UNCED preparatory committee sessions, and ultimately prevented a legally-binding global agreement from materializing at Rio. The full title given to the Forest Principles is testimony to the widespread divergences between those states calling for a legally-binding instrument (i.e. “Authoritative Statement”) and those seeking to limit the agreement to a non-legally binding “Statement of Principles