The Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit concluded with a strong show of support from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Centre for International Forestry Research, United States, Papua New Guinea and others to help realise the global goal of ending natural rainforest loss by 2030.
The Australian Government is delighted to have received overwhelming support from world leaders and key rainforest experts at the Summit for a process leading to rainforest recovery plan for the region.
Papua New Guinea has pledged that they will bring forward by a decade the ending of deforestation.
Indonesia has pledged that they will preserve 63 million hectares of sensitive, vital peat land which would otherwise have been threatened.
And Australia has committed $6 million for the regional programme to reduce deforestation and combat illegal logging.
Australia has been a long-term supporter in working in the Asia-Pacific region to combat illegal logging and protect tropical rainforests.
The Australian Government has also been providing technical support through sharing our world-leading satellite monitoring tools to help build capacity and monitor forest resources in the region. It is important that this work is undertaken in co-operation with the local Indigenous communities.
The Government is delighted with the progress made on building regional collaboration, through an Asia-Pacific Rainforest Recovery Plan, as a way for the region to demonstrate its commitment to slow, halt and ultimately reverse rainforest loss in the Asia-Pacific and identify practical steps that will help realise that goal.
An Asia-Pacific rainforest recovery plan will identify the region’s share of global commitments and for the first time provide a regional commitment to reduce rainforest loss. The recovery plan would:
• identify a regional goal to halve the rate of loss of rainforests
• aim to end natural rainforest loss in the region by 2030 by adopting the principles of sustainable forest management
• encourage the private sector to eliminate rainforest deforestation from the production of palm oil, paper and timber products no later than 2020
• identify a regional goal to restore degraded rainforests in the region by 2020, and increasing targets by 2030.
At the Summit there was strong support from rainforest governments in the Asia-Pacific region, donor countries, leading NGOs and international forestry agencies to work together develop a regional rainforest recovery plan and that key elements should include:
• building national systems to measure and monitor rainforests
• formulating national policies to reduce rainforest loss, strengthen community partnerships and support economic development
• strengthening forest governance and combating illegal logging
• preventing the cross-border movement of illegally logged timber in the region
• restoring degraded rainforest landscapes.
Australia committed to getting all stakeholders back to together to measure action as the Asia-Pacific Recovery Plan progresses.
The commitment to work toward a regional rainforest recovery plan was reached at the conclusion of the successful two-day Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit in Sydney, which was organised and hosted by the Australian Government.
Hosting an Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit was a Coalition election commitment.
The Summit involved leaders and technical experts from at least 25 countries, including ministers from rainforest countries in the Asia-Pacific region, meeting to agree practical ways to reduce Asia-Pacific rainforest loss.
(ENDS)