Esteemed members of governmental delegations! Dear Conference participants! As the World Bank’s Director for Russia and on behalf of all my colleagues at the Bank, as the co-host of the Europe and North Asia Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Process, I have the privilege of joining our Russian partners in welcoming you here in St. Petersburg – the northern capital of Russia – at the opening of the ENA-FLEG Ministerial Conference! When we met with many of you – only five and a half months ago – at the ENA-FLEG Preparatory Conference in Moscow, the goals and the timetable that you had set for this Ministerial meeting seemed quite tough – and even unrealistic – to some of us! But where there is a will, there is a way! Those who came here today – that is almost 250 participants– including 45 delegations of both ‘producer’ and ‘consumer’ governments, observers from key stakeholder groups such as the civil society and private sector, regional and international organizations – and many more people outside this room – all worked very hard together in the previous months. They worked to move from a general appreciation of the problem of illegal logging and associated trade and corruption in the forest sector towards developing concrete statements of common purpose and detailed recommendations for future coordinated actions. Back five and a half months ago – we agreed to start looking for joint and collaborative solutions to a common problem. We agreed that mismanagement of forests is a shared problem for all of us – because forests are a global public good, for their role in our climate, water supply and biodiversity. We also agreed on the certain ways in which we should be looking for solutions. Specifically: - … We stressed that finger-pointing and looking for culprits is not going to help. Producers and consumers, importers and exporters, governments, industry and civil society – all have an equal stake in developing practical and long-lasting solutions to reducing mismanagement of forests. Honest and competent dialogue about the difficult problems is a key to success.
… We agreed on the importance to see ‘the forest behind the trees’ – i.e. the underlying social, economic and institutional causes for poor governance of forests. Many of you might remember a vivid verse from your high-school class in the 19th century Russian literature:
“Where is the wood from, my little boy? - Of course, from the forest, Sir.
Hear – my Daddy is cutting and I’m only hauling it out.” - Social forestry issues, rural unemployment and poverty in any country requires bringing fully into this dialogue core government decision-makers (ministries of finance, economy and commerce), and most importantly, industry and private sector, in addition to the more traditional stakeholders such as the forestry agencies and environmental NGOs.
- … We emphasized the need to focus on concrete, measurable and accountable steps that should happen beyond the Ministerial Declaration, and for that purpose to look for sharing existing practical experiences – what works and what does not, why, where and how.
Today, it is quite remarkable to see how much progress we all have made in these directions set out only five and a half months ago! - ENA-FLEG national stakeholder processes have been launched and are under way in many countries of the Region. In Russia alone, there have been numerous discussions at various levels – ranging from NGO workshops to regional and interagency meetings to nationwide industry forums and commerce roundtables to parliamentary hearings – all leading to development of a National Action Plan, which – I understand – will be presented to all of us for discussion and comments this week. Other countries have been quite active as well.
- There has been a remarkable interest and contribution across the participating countries coming from both the civil society and private sector. In fact, the level of cooperation and direct dialogue between industry and civil society have been quite unprecedented, and it culminated in a joint position developed at the recent meeting of The Forest Dialogue – held also here in St. Petersburg – which is now presented to the governmental delegations for their considerations.
- The process of developing a working draft for the Ministerial Declaration and Action Plan has also been very open and transparent. All interested parties have been given an opportunity to comment on the initial working document, and there have been several iterations before the text is now put of the negotiating table for the governmental delegations.
The challenge is now to translate this incredible energy and commitment of all parties involved into very concrete agreements for specific time-bound actions at the national, regional and international levels, whose direct impact could be practically measured within a medium-term period such as 3-5 years. The World Bank at this stage is turning from its previous role of a neutral coordinator and co-host in this ENA-FLEG process into the role of a very attentive listener because we are here to hear your consolidated and voice regarding where the key priorities for practical actions should be in the coming months and years, in which the World Bank – and other members of the international community – should be pooling our knowledge and financial resources, so as to be able to help you implement these decisions in the most effective and efficient way. We wish you very hard work and strong success at the end of these four days! |
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