Global Forest Governance:mechanisms, Institutions, Doctrines, Prospects

With the warming up of international environment and development problems alternately, forest plays important roles in environment problems, such as climate change, biodiversity conservation, water conservation, poverty reduction, and development problems. For the complexity of international forest problems, international forest negotiation hasn’t arrived at a constructive scheme, namely, a legally binding international forest convention. The effort to introduce international forest into the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, and Convention on Wetlands makes the problems even more complex and fragmented. At the same time, the conflict between different forest demands exerted great pressure on forest, which stresses the coordination difficulty on the management department. The deficiency of the important legal mechanisms in forest regulatory and the overlapping of forest institutions further strengthen this conflict. Thus, it is urgent to reform Global Forest Governance(GFG), which should be keeping up with the era. In this thesis, we comb systematically and analyze deeply GFG from four different perspectives of mechanisms, institutions, doctrines and prospects in the guidance of global governance theory, modern forestry theory and sustainable development theory.Chapter 1 is about the theories of GFG. So far, there isn’t a legally binding global norm on forest sustainable management. International negotiations on forests are with political color. Competition on forest ecology, economy and social values among different countries has become an obstacle to arrive at an international standard agreement on forest use and management. There is little effect to regulate global forest protection problems in international law. The existing international legal norms related to forest governance are mostly soft law or quasi legal norms(e.g. forest certification), which is not legally binding. In forest problems, both developed countries and developing countries are facing legal embarrassment of rule of law. So the governance reform under the participation of the stakeholders is inevitable. Introduction of the theory of global governance into global forest protection, paves the way for the problems of GFG, which plays an important role on restarting international forest negotiation, formulating global forest strategy, regulating and supervising forest activities.Reducing global deforestation and forest degradation should be the priority of GFG, which has been a global consensus. Environmental justice movement appeals for fair resources use, justice procedure, safe and healthy environment. We should integrate environmental justice into GFG, as the basic principles of regulating and managing the world’s forests.Chapter 2 is about the mechanisms of GFG. The existing GFG mechanisms are playing important roles on solving international forest problems, promoting the establishment of GFG system, and realizing all types of forest conservation and sustainable management. Three mechanisms of forest market mechanism, forest certification mechanism and forest mechanism under international climate change system have been studied in this chapter.In order to enlarge the application of forest market mechanism, there is a demand for forest ecosystem services and creating a market firstly. Secondly we should solve the land use right, sustainability, leakage and repeated calculation, etc. We should clarify environmental goals of forest market mechanism and forest value which is protected by the mechanism, and design a simple application, in order to provide incentive to promote the implementation of sustainable forest management. Good governance of the forest requires transparency, accountability and the participation of stakeholders, etc.Forest certification mechanism in the international forest policy is a kind of promising mechanism. It acknowledges and promotes all forest value, and change the use, management and consumption patterns of forest products. We should strengthen the incentive of forest certification, make timber producers’ countries to realize the value of forest certification schemes, and make consumers’ behavior of forest green purchasing, being beneficial to the sustainable development on the basis of improving environmental awareness. Many obstacles must be overcome in forest certification mechanism. Demand of certified timber must be increased, and incentive must be provided, in order to ensure the position and development of the forest certification bodies in the international forest policy.Compared with UNFF, LULUCF, CDM, REDD under system of international climate change mechanism are striking, which can provide more powerful political support and are legally binding, and provide funds to implement forest projects. We must carry on reform related to forest use and management in international climate change system, such as the introduction of a binding obligation, requiring members to increase the forest coverage rate and so on, which will be useful to change the world’s forests.Chapter 3 is about the institutions of GFG. The thesis studies the two most important institutions in GFG.The United Nations Forum on Forestry(UNFF)organized members to negotiate. International Forest Document, which is the most comprehensive and important in GFG and the foundation of the future international forestry law, was developed by UNFF. Now the forum needs a major reform, attracts operating funds, becomes an international and intergovernmental forest project coordinator, and gains the respect of members and stakeholders.The first forest policy in World Bank is to reduce poverty and to improve living conditions of forest dwellers. The second is to expand the implementation of forest certification schemes, promoting the wide application of sustainable forest management principle. World Bank and other international organizations and institutions have formed strategic partnerships, starting international process of integrating GFG arrangements. World Bank is leading in the field of forest governance.Chapter 4 is about the doctrines of GFG. When applicable international standards, rules, or forest regulation targets are enacted, the current GFG is repeated, overlapping, scattered, fragmented and even chaos. Private regulation of international forest is increasingly dominant. In order to open up new paths for GFG, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) summarizes common doctrines, which penetrated in all international forest policy, puts forward to the doctrines of sustainable forest management and multiple-use forest management, and suggests to incorporate them into international forest policy. These two doctrines have been received considerable recognition, and abided by international community to a certain extent.Sustainable forest management admits and tries to balance the different values of internal conflicts among forest ecological environment, social culture, trade and development, in order to realize the values of forest. Forest economy and services can be balanced, sustainable and perpetual developed.The implementation difficulty of sustainable forest management is disunited demands and the deficiency of enforcement mechanism. The doctrine is thought to be abstract. However, although this doctrine is not clear and exact, and has a gap with international discourse of "sustainable development", at least it reaches a certain consensus. The overall goal of global forest management should be sustainable forest management.Land or forest are managed in multiple-use forest management for no one purpose, such as wood or wood products production, domestic wild animals feeding and protection, landscape maintenance and livestock protection, suitable environmental conditions, entertainment and protection of water sources, etc. This means that the diversification of forest uses and replacement of tropical forest management method focus on single timber production practice. Multiple-use forest management is limited by many factors. The product market is limited and the wooden forest products hinder their commercialization because of the scale. Usually because of bad market, they were sold illegally at a very low price mainly through the middlemen, rather than entering into the formal market. This not only greatly reduces the profits of forestry practitioners, but also degrades the competitiveness of multiple-use forest management.Chapter 5 is about the prospects of GFG. Recently there are new phenomenon, new problems and new trends on GFG, mainly including the grim situation of illegal timber trade, which is urgent for international community to take measures to curb, or harm greatly. International climate change system has harmful influence on the international forest policy. Non-state governance in GFG is more and more important.There are challenges on GFG system, which needs to be built, such as establishing global forest administration, developing the international standards for sustainable forest management and incorporating the environmental justice principle into GFG.Looking forward to the situations and prospects of GFG, we should clear goals and challenges of GFG, restart global forest negotiations, supplement and improve the existing international forest files, implement good governance of GFG and take the feasible reform measures of GFG.