Leadership and governance in world forestry: A discussion paper

Is improved world leadership in forestry feasible and is it imminent? The way UN international forest institutions are governed has a profound effect on their performance. The availability of resources and the responsiveness to sector issues in developing appropriate and coherent policies and programs are defining features of the quality of leadership. By any measure, funding and human resources are in extremely short supply among a fractionated and scattered number of small and relatively ineffective UN international forest institutions. A critical objective of institutional reform will be to enhance the effective representation of ministers responsible for forests (and not surrogates from agriculture, trade or environment ministries), the commercial private sector and representative citizen groups. Three options are explored for institutional reform with particular emphasis on the third.The first would be a minimalist approach. It would see the creation of a World Forest Programme in association with FAO similar to the World Food Programme. The second option to creating a new governance structure for more direct representation of forest interests would lead to the creation of a new UN "Forest Council" of ministers responsible for forests apart from FAO and other UN forest agencies that would guide international forest policy dialogue. A third option would result in the creation of a "hybrid" institution, the Global Alliance for Forests and Sustainable Development (GLOBALFOR), which would be established out-side the UN but could be more successful than other options in building a sound and modern governance structure among all interested parties, including governments, industry and NGOs that is open, inclusive and participatory.Institutional reform of international forest institutions is important and urgent and demands the attention of UN reformers and independent assessors. Reform could result in fewer institutions at lower cost and increased resources for more effective global forest related activity.