On the Edge: The State and Fate of the World's Tropical Rainforests by Claude Martin Thomas Lovejoy

Author:Claude Martin, Thomas Lovejoy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771641418
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2015-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

PUBLIC AWARENESS CONVERTED INTO INTERGOVERNMENTAL BUREAUCRACY

THE OUTCRY, ESSENTIALLY of the Western public and nongovernmental organizations, triggered a reaction in governmental and intergovernmental communities. Without much understanding and analysis of the root causes of deforestation, they created a fleet of agreements and policies to stop the destruction. The first of these was the Tropical Forestry Action Plan in 1985 (see box 2.1), followed by the creation of the International Tropical Timber Organization to promote sustainable forest management in the tropics. Then came the adoption of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Rio in 1992. The Earth Summit* also adopted the “Statement of Forest Principles,” which eventually was followed by the United Nations Forum on Forests in 2000.

With the engagement of intergovernmental institutions, things gradually became quieter around the issue of rainforest destruction, partly because climate change had now become the number one global environmental concern. As the United Nations seemed to be taking care of the tropical rainforest problem, the media and the broader public were inclined to believe the issue was in good hands. The concern over the destruction of tropical rainforests of the 1980s dissipated into debates at numerous international meetings that tied up much capacity in governments and nongovernmental organizations alike.

Eventually it became clear that the time for sounding the alarm (telling the world the rainforests were disappearing) and hoping for the best (waiting for the United Nations to save them) was past for the conservation community. New approaches in tropical rainforest conservation were badly needed. Deforestation was accelerating in South America and Southeast Asia, and with a limited number of protected areas scattered across the tropical rainforest biome, the future at the beginning of the 1990s looked bleak. Very bleak.

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