Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

152 crossin, hayman, and taylordevelopment of all types of forests. There is no mention of illegal loggingin the program, although this might be encapsulated in the provisionnoting the importance of good governance and an enabling environmentfor sustainable forest management.The UN Forum on Forests is supposed to consider the prospects fora legal framework on all types of forests within five years. This wouldprovide an obvious forum for global discussion of the issues raised byillegal logging and conflict timber. However, the participants at theforum remain divided over whether a forestry convention is needed,let alone over the need for measures aimed specifically at the forestrysector. Any discussion of a forestry convention should include on itsagenda the issues of illegal logging and conflict timber.Food and Agriculture OrganizationThe linkage between human development and sustainable managementforms the cornerstone of the forestry mission of the Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations (FAO). Its Forestry Programseeks to “maximize the potential of trees, forests, and related sources toimprove people’s economic, social, and environmental conditions, whileensuring that the resource is conserved to meet the needs of future generations.”The FAO Program on Forestry and Planning provides for thecollection, analysis, and dissemination of information on numerousmatters, including trade, production, and consumption. The FAO alsoworks with other international bodies on forest policy. It chairs the Inter-Agency Task Force on Forests, which coordinates the work of other internationalorganizations, and it is the lead organization in the UNForum on Forests on rehabilitation of forest cover, technology transfer,and supply and demand analysis of wood and nonwood forest products.The FAO’s Forest Products Division provides technical, environmental,and economic advice and assistance in the harvesting, transport,processing, trade, and marketing of wood and nonwood forestproducts, including wood-based energy and the management anddevelopment of forest industries appropriate to the conditions of individualcountries. The Forest Harvest, Trade, and Marketing Branchundertakes a wide range of activities, including monitoring and analyzingforestry and trade in forest products. It also prepares studies ontariff and nontariff barriers, reviews trade policies of relevance to marketingof forest products, and promotes the development of appropriatepolicies of relevance to trade in forest products. In addition, itworks on schemes for timber certification from sustainably managedforests. No specific program at FAO is looking at illegal logging orcorruption in the forestry sector.