The Head of the Estonian delegation, Chancellor of the Ministry of the Environment Rita Annus, explained that with the declaration, the countries affirmed the need to enhance the role of forests in adapting to climate change to, first of all, fight against desertification and to slow down the loss of biological diversity. In order to ensure sustainable forest management and balance the views of different related stakeholders, national forestry development plans with a common framework are planned to be developed. Estonian forestry is a good example to other countries. Marku Lamp, Head of the Forest Department of the Ministry of the Environment, said that the traditions of Estonian forestry management go back a long time, the surface area of forests is the highest in centuries and the use of Estonian forest resource is sustainable. Considerably more forest is growing in Estonia than is used. It is important for Estonia to ensure that forests be preserved as both living and natural environments, that our forestry undertakings would develop and be competitive, that investments in forestry management would increase to offer more diverse recreational and resting possibilities in the forests, and that private forest owners would also start to deal with their forests more. The Economic and Social Council of the UN established a forestry forum to promote internationally approved forestry activity on a national, regional and global level. The first meeting of the forum (UNFF-1) took place on 11–22 June 2001, at the UN Headquarters in New York. |
