To promote science, technology, innovation and traditional knowledge as a way of facing the main challenge regarding forests: turning them productive without destroying them. This was the proposal voted by around 2 thousand members of the civil society that participated in the Dialogues for Sustainable Development session on Forests.

The proposal should be presented to the Heads of States and Governments during Rio+20’s High Level Segment, which starts June 20.

 “This participation by the civil society is unprecedented in UN’s conferences. Millions of people all over the world made more than 850 recommendations on the Forests topic.” With this statement this afternoon, June 17, the moderator James Chau, from the Chinese TV channel CCTV, opened the Dialogues for Sustainable Development’s session on Forests.

The discussion focused on the importance of exploiting the forests without destroying them and was attended by ten Brazilian and foreign speakers from the academia, the business community and NGOs.

The question on whether to stop deforestation or to promote reforestation was at the core of the discussion. Yolanda Kakabadse, World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) president, drew attention to the alarming pace of forest destruction and made the second recommendation, which was approved by the debaters and will go to the world’s leaders’ plenary: completely stopping deforestation by 2020.

“Government, society and businesses should make a very clear commitment to eliminating deforestation in the world. We need as a society to reaffirm the decision to keep forests standing”, defends Andre Giacini de Freitas, Executive Director of the Forest Stewardship Council.

Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ) Professor Bertha Becker emphasized that 70% of the Amazon’s population lives in urban centers and that one needs to strengthen these small centers as production service providers and the organization of sustainable productive chains. “We need to widen the local population’s horizon and perspectives”, she said.

Estebancio Castro Diaz, Executive Assistant of the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, reaffirmed the importance of including the indigenous people in the crafting of these policies. “There should be an interconnection between the protection of forests and the needs of these people, be it social, economic or spiritual values”, added the Director of the Center for Nature and Society of Beijing’s University, Lu Zhi.

Christian Del Valle, Founder of Althelia Ecosphere e Climate Fund, defended the inclusion of deforestation in the GDP’s calculation. “Human and natural capital should be as important as financial capital”, he explained.

The private sector was also indicated as part of the solution. IKEA’s Director for Forests, Anders Hildeman, reaffirmed the importance of businesses in following sustainable norms and that sustainability needs to be at the population’s reach.

“Big companies are the ones that have the necessary weight to influence the way timber is extracted”, he said. The Co-President of Natura Cosmetics’ Administration Council, Guilherme Leal, mentioned the importance of promoting the culture of social responsibilities in businesses. “To recognize this is to take advantage of the business opportunity”, he added.

Besides the proposal voted by the civil society and the one elaborated by the debaters, there was one that had a special repercussion: to restore, by 2020, 150 million hectares of degraded or deforested areas. This was recommended by online voting, which ended on June 15.

“I was thrilled with the online voting because it is fundamental that we have practical solutions and goals capable of being measured”, said Julia Marton-Lefevre, General-Director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Defender of reforestation without disregarding the threat to deforestation, Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, closed the debate signaling the importance of creating jobs in forest regions, related to forest products, to motivate local development. “To plant trees is to make peace”, he stated.

Structure of the Dialogues

The Dialogues for Sustainable Development started on Saturday, June 16 and will go on until June 19 at Pavilion 5 of Riocentro. There will be ten rounds of discussions, with ten participants in each. They will focus on topics that have priority on the international agenda of sustainability. At each round, three proposals will be chosen, one by the speakers, one by the audience and one by the internet users.  Thirty suggestions with the most votes will be taken directly to the Heads of States and Governments attending the Conference.

The Dialogues have ten topics:

• (i) Unemployment, decent work and migration;
• (ii) Sustainable Development as an answer to economic and financial crises; (iii) Sustainable Development to combat hunger;
  
• (iv) The Economics of Sustainable Development, including sustainable standards for production and consumption;
• (v) Forests;
  
• (vi) Food and nutritional security;
  
• (vii) Sustainable energy for all;
  
• (viii) Water;
  
• (ix) Sustainable cities and innovation;
  
• (x) Oceans.
  

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