State of the Rainforest 2014

Recommendations – urgent actions required to reduce tropical deforestation

National governments, both within their respective countries and collectively as the international community, should:

Ensure that forest peoples’ collective rights to land and natural resources are included in international and national development plans, and respected in practice; Consult and cooperate in good faith with indigenous peoples in order to obtain their Free, Prior and Informed Consent in all matters that affect them and their traditional lands and resources; Work with forest communities and indigenous peoples in order to meet their development aspirations and create sustainable income opportunities compatible with the maintenance of forest and their culture and traditions; Improve global forest monitoring systems so that they effectively distinguish between various forest types and plantations and provide reliable information on forest cover and loss, including degradation and fragmentation, globally and at country and regional levels; Ensure that definitions of forests adopted by international institutions and countries distinguish between different forest types and natural forests and plantations, to avoid misleading reporting of forest cover and forest loss.

a.

Make forest protection an integral part of UN’s new sustainable development goals, given the importance of forests for local and global sustainable development;

g.

b.

Provide significant rewards to rainforest countries for protection of natural forests and ecosystems;

h.

c.

Review plans for large-scale expansion of infrastructure, extractive industries and other economic activities in rainforest regions to ensure they do not threaten forest ecosystems and/or undermine the rights of forest communities and indigenous peoples; Combat forest crime through new regulations and increased law enforcement efforts targeting the full enforcement chain from customs control, investigation of money laundering and tax fraud to prosecution and increased international collaboration; Effectively regulate industries involved in rainforest destruction, and support private sector actors that develop and implement no-deforestation policies;

i.

d.

j.

e.

k.

f.

Establish policies and regulations to avoid investments in companies and industries causing forest destruction;

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014