UN Meeting Pledges International Cooperation To Curb Forest Fires
With an average of 400 million to 500 million hectares burning each year from forest fires around the world, a United
Nations ministerial meeting has pledged intensified international cooperation to address the problem, including its root
causes.
“While fire is an important land management tool, severe wildland fires have catastrophic effects,” UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf told the third Ministerial Meeting on Forests meeting this
week in Rome. “Lives are lost, livelihoods imperilled, local economies devastated and the environment seriously
degraded.”
As well as international cooperation on fires and combating deforestation, the 400 representatives from Member States,
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector are discussing the role of forests in rehabilitation after
December’s devastating Indian Ocean tsunami and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Forests contribute directly to achieving two of the MDGs – a list of targets set by the UN Millennium Summit of 2000 to
drastically cut a host of social and economic ills – namely reducing extreme poverty and ensuring environmental
sustainability.
More than 9 million hectares of forests are lost globally each year, while forests provide multiple economic,
environmental, social and cultural functions. They help to conserve biodiversity, mitigate climate change, provide clean
water and energy, enhance soil fertility and support livelihoods.
On tsunami damage, the ministers called for a comprehensive assessment of wood needs for reconstruction to better
respond to the emerging challenges of rehabilitating damaged forests, salvaging wood and meeting the immediate needs for
reconstructing piers, bridges, boats and houses as well as for fuel.