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WWF Pays Tribute To Leading Forest Protectors

Forest June 23, 1997

NEW YORK CITY: WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature - today paid tribute to 20 far-sighted Governments and a number of Business leaders who have made a meaningful commitment to conserve forests.

At WWF's Forest Summit - held in participation with the Executive Office of the Secretary General of the UN on the first day of the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGASS) - commonly known as Earth Summit II, WWF revealed the names of those Governments which have responded to WWF's call and taken steps to ensure the proper protection of their country's forests.

20 Governments1 have now made a pledge to WWF's forest protected areas target2 - with the People's Republic of China announcing their commitment today. "The Ministry of Forestry - the People's Republic of China - is committed to for est conservation. By the Year 2000 we will have increased forest cover in our country by 15-16%. Over 10% of China's forests will be completely protected in a network of ecologically representative nature reserves covering the range of forest types foun d in our country."

In addition, New Zealand has today reiterated their commitment and are being awarded a "Leaders for a Living Planet" certificate as part of WWF's Living Planet Campaign.

"The first Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992 promised great things for forest conservation. But five years on it is hard to pinpoint how all of the talk has resulted in any real or specific commitment for action to save the world's forests." said Francis S ullivan, Director of WWF's Forests for Life campaign. "This is why we are so encouraged that to date 20 governments have committed to our forest protected areas target - these commitments show that there is light at the end of what has been a rather long dark tunnel of the last five years".

As well as working closely with individual governments, WWF has forged partnerships with a number of leading businesses who play a key role in the international timber trade.

"We have realised that B&Q - as a leading retailer of wood and wood products - have a key role to play in helping to conserve the worlds' forests." said Dr Alan Knight, Environmental Policy Controller of B&Q plc3, one of Europe's leading Do-It- Yourself retailers. "We have therefore committed to ensure that all our wood comes from certified well-managed forests by the year 2000 and would urge other businesses to make similar commitments to play their part in helping to protect the world's rema ining forests".

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NOTES:

  1. Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, People' Republic of China, Colombia, Greece, Lithuania, Malawi, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Romania, Russian Republic of Sakha, Slovak Republic, Tunisia, Uzbekistan

  2. The establishment of an ecologically representative network of protected areas covering at least 10% of each forest type by the year 2000, demonstrating a range of socially and ecologically appropriate models.

  3. B&Q is the UK's leading do-it-yourself retailer with sales of £l,464 million and profits of £97.2 million. B&Q has 283 stores in the UK and employs 19,000 staff.