UN FAO, 2010 - Two Sides

Legal, policy and institutional framework 153
BOx 8.1
international conventions and agreements related to forests
A number of binding and non-binding international conventions and agreements
relate to forests and their management. Among the non-binding agreements, the Non-
Legally Binding instrument on All Types of Forests, adopted by the uN general Assembly
in 2007, is particularly important. Prior agreements are 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
‘Forest Principles’, and ‘Chapter 11 of Agenda 21: Combating Deforestation’. These
both resulted from the united Nations Conference on environment and Development
(uNCeD) in rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992.
There are several legally-binding international conventions and agreements related
to the sustainable management and conservation of forests. These international
conventions and agreements rely for their impact on ratification by individual countries.
Once ratified, the agreements are incorporated into the signatory countries’ national
legal frameworks, through which they take effect.
For the purposes of FrA 2010, the ratification status of international conventions
and agreements related to forests were compiled based on information provided on
their official web sites. The detailed ratification status is shown in Table 20 in Annex 3
and summarized below. The total number of countries refer to those countries that
have either ratified, acceded to, approved, accepted or adopted a convention or an
agreement.
number of countries
convention or agreement
as of 1 January 2010
Non-Legally Binding instrument on All Types of Forests 192
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 192
united Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (uNFCCC) 193
Kyoto Protocol 191
united Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (uNCCD) 192
Convention on international Trade in endangered Species of Wild Fauna
175
and Flora (CiTeS)
Convention on Wetlands of international importance (ramsar) 160
World Heritage Convention 187
international Tropical Timber Agreement (iTTA) 60
sources:
NLBi: http://www.un.org/en/members/
CBD: http://www.cbd.int/convention/parties/list/
uNFCCC: http://unfccc.int/parties_and_observers/parties/items/2352.php
Kyoto Protocol: http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/status_of_ratification/items/2613.php
uNCCD: http://www.unccd.int/convention/ratif/doeif.php
CiTeS: http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/parties/alphabet.shtml
ramsar: http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-about-parties-contracting-parties-to-23808/
main/ramsar/1-36-123%5e23808_4000_0__
World Heritage Convention: http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/
iTTA: http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/