Tropical Forest Forum

<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>UK Tropical Forest Forum</TITLE></HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffe8"> <H1>Forum activities:</H1> <H2>report from secretariat</H2> <I><H3>by Jane Thornback,<BR> Forum Coordinator</H3></I> <P> <HR> <B> <FONT COLOR="green">Forum activities include: <UL> <LI>two large meetings a year <LI>working groups that meet more rcgularly <LI>workshops on Specialist topics <LI>a newsletter <LI>information notices and coming soon a Home Page on the Internet </UL> <P> More than 900 people/ organisations now participate in the Forum.</FONT> </B><P> <H2>Large Forum Meetings</H2> The most recent Large Forum Meeting (the 10th) was held on 29 February at the Zoological Society of London. The agenda included progress reports concerning the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, the International Tropical Timber Organisation, CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the Biodiversity Convention, the Forest Stewardship Council~etc. The main agenda topic was the role of private capital flows in the international timber trade markets. Two presentations were given, one by Mark Campanale of NPI and the other by Lionel Fretz of Coopers and Lybrand. As a result of the discussion on this topic a Forum Working Group on financial investments has been formed (see separate report). <P> The 9th Large Forum meeting was held on 26 July 1995 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The main agenda item was "Biodiversity Conservation: Links between Science, Management and People". The presentation was given by Nigel Hunter of the Natural Resources Institute and formerly Director of National Parks and Wildlife in Botswana. <P> The next Large Forum Meeting will be in November 1996, the exact date yet to be confirmed. <P> <FONT COLOR="grey"><H2>Working Groups</H2></FONT> <H4>CSD/lntergovernmental Panel on Forests</H4> The Forum has had a Working Group monitoring international forest discussions since 1992. At first this Group was called the UNCED group and considered activities leading up to the Earth Sutntnit in Rio in 1992, then the Group evolved into the CSD Review Group (CSD is the Commission on Sustainable Development). More recently the Group in continuing to track forest discussions in the CSD is focused on the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF). The Group meets prior to, and just after, an IPF meeting. Its most recent meeting was on 29 August 1996 prior to the IPF meeting in Geneva starting on 9 September. The UK Tropical Forest Forum will be giving a presentation to the IPF in Geneva on 19 September. <P> <H4>Financial Investments</H4> In response to the discussions at the Large Forum Meeting in February on the role of private capital flows in the international logging operations, the Forum has established a Financial Investments Working Group which held its first meeting at the offices of NPI on 30 July. The Group is preparing for a specialist Workshop on this topic for later in the autumn. The Group will meet several times prior to the Workshop. <P> <H4>Small Business Discussion Group</H4> The Group, comprised of people working in small businesses which import tropical forest products, has had two meetings, one on the topic of tropical honey and its importation, and the other on essential oils. The Group hopes to prepare various publications that will promote the wise use of tropical forest products. The Chairman of the Group is Mr John Burton of the World Land Trust. The Group will next meet on 31 October at Wyld Court Rainforest near Newbury. Wyld Court has recently been given as a gift to the World Land Trust. <P> <H4>Biodiversity Working Group</H4> The Group meets regularly at the Natural History Museum for discussions especially on biodiversity assessment and conservation. The Group, sponsored by Earthwatch Europe, also reviews two projects carried out with Earthwatch Europe funding: a plant collecting activity in Cameroon coordinated by Martin Cheek of Kew Gardens, and a hoverfly project in Kakamega Forest, westem Kenya. A week long conference in Cameroon on the subject of the linkages between biodiversity inventory and assessment with actual forest management will be coordinated by the Forum Secretariat at the Limbe Botanic Garden in Cameroon from 17 to 24 January 1997. The conference is made possible by support from Earthwatch Europe with funding from the European Commission. ODA is also supporting the meeting through its funding of the Mount Cameroon Project. The Biodiversity Working Group has played a role in discussing the scope of the conference. <P> <H4>Working groups on the Tropical Forest Action Plan, Training, Education, Big Business Discussion Group,</H4> have all met at some time or another but are not active at the present time. Groups tend to wax and wane according to interest. Anyone wishing to join a Group who has not done so already please contact the Forum Secretariat. <P> <FONT COLOR="grey"><H2>Workshops</H2></FONT> From time to time, the Forum holds workshops to examine a topic in more detail. In February, the topic for a one-day meeting was the "Forest-Agriculture Interface: Stabilising the Forest Boundary". The Workshop was sponsored by the ODA's Renewable Natural Resources Research Programme. After a review of the issues, discussion focused on research priorities. <P> Workshops in the coming months include the financial capital flows mentioned above, and a look at Participatory Forest Management in response to an ODA intemal review. <P> <FONT COLOR="grey"><H2>European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN)</H2></FONT> ETFRN is a European Network that aims to link together researchers from Europe with those in tropical countries. It produces a regular newsletter, a list of organisations in Europe involved in research, and is building up access to a European project list of research projects. It has a home page on the Intemet, http://www.zadi.de/etfrn/etfrnhom.htm. <P> The Tropical Forest Forum, along with the Natural Resources Institute, act as UK focal points for ETFRN. The Forum circulates the ETFRN newsletter in the Forum mailouts. <P> <FONT COLOR="grey"><H2>Information notices</H2></FONT> Information notices on forthcoming conferences and publications, and small brochures about organisations are circulated in the regular Forum mailouts. Any Participant wishing to include material in a mailout should send 900 copies to the Tropical Forest Forum, c/o Natural Resources Institute, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4TB. <P> <HR> <A HREF=http:/www.nri.org/" target="_top"><IMG SRC="/wwwgifs/nribut.gif" BORDER=0></A> <A HREF="http://www.nri.org/TFF/homepage.htm" target="_top"><IMG SRC="tffhome.gif" BORDER=0></A> <A HREF="tffindex.htm" target="_top"><IMG SRC="/wwwgifs/index.gif" BORDER=0></A> <A HREF="tffiss4g.htm" target="_top"><IMG SRC="/wwwgifs/lhand.gif" BORDER=0></A> <A HREF="tffiss4i.htm" target="_top"><IMG SRC="/wwwgifs/rhand.gif" BORDER=0></A> </BODY> </HTML>