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Between the forests and the trees – an emerging international forest law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Jutta Brunnée  and
André Nollkaemper
Jutta Brunnée
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia, 1822 East Mall, Vancouver B.C., Canada V6T 1Z1, the Netherlands
André Nollkaemper*
Affiliation:
Centre for International Natural Resources Law, Faculty of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
*
* Dr André Nollkaemper Tel: +31 10 4082608/4081574 Fax: +31 10 4532913 e-mail: nollkaempcr@sta.frg.eur.nl
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Summary

International forest law remains an undeveloped area of law. It consists of a multitude of treaties and non-treaty instruments dealing in a rather unprincipled and uncoordinated manner with such issues as biodiversity in forests; protection of forests as sinks of carbon dioxide; protection of endangered tree species; and trade in timber. However, in the face of mounting pressure on the world's tropical and other forests, in recent years there have been attempts to clarify and articulate the values and objectives underlying international forest policy that may induce a further development of the law.

A tension exists between the firmly-rooted claims of sovereignty over forests and the emerging, increasingly-accepted legal principles which could guide international forest law: the principles of common concern, inter-generational equity and precaution. This shift has begun to influence the development of international forest law in critical international initiatives, including the Biodiversity Convention, the Climate Change Convention and, particularly, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests. The various layers of dialogue which have emerged to address different aspects of the forest issue (including legal, trade, and ecological issues) promote a gradual convergence of expectations and interests and thus ultimately may further normative development. Despite the diversity of forests and forest concerns between regions and continents, there is an important role for a set of general legal principles, objectives and procedures defining the parameters and establishing the ground rules of global forest law.

Keywords

forestsbiodiversityclimate changeconservationinternational environmental lawinternational law
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 1996 , pp. 307 - 314
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1996

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