Abstract
The Third Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee for a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe (INC-Forests3) convened between 28 January and 1 February 2013 in Antalya, Turkey. Pursuant to the Oslo Ministerial Mandate, the INC-Forests has been established to develop "a holistic legally binding framework forest agreement", strengthening cooperation between the States of the European continent.1 The Committee, presided over by forest veteran Jan Heino (Finland), has been entrusted to agree upon a set of forest matters that have long eluded international regulation, including measures designed to, inter alia, enhance the contribution of forests to climate change mitigation, halt the loss of forest biodiversity, and tackle illegal logging and the associated trade. 2 It is expected that the final agreement will be considered, and possibly adopted and opened for signature, at an extraordinary FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference to be held by the end of 2013.3 INC-Forests3 was attended by representatives from 35 countries and the EU, as well as observers from the Government of Japan and 18 intergovernmental, national and international non-governmental organisations. In Antalya, delegates discussed the draft negotiating text for a legally binding agreement4 and a roadmap for further negotiations, as well as the question of whether or not to bring the agreement under the United Nations umbrella. This review summarises progress on each of these points.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 102-104 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Environmental Policy and Law: The Journal for Decision-Makers |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Jun 2013 |