Changing Landscapes by Duncan Poore. Published by Earthscan 2003
Reviewed by Robin Sharp CB

'Can a global inter-governmental convention deliver sustainable forest management?' is the fundamental question addressed by this well written book from a distinguished author who at various times headed up IUCN, IIED (the International Institute for Environment & Development) and the UK's Nature Conservancy Council, not to mention the Commonwealth Forestry Institute at Oxford. Incidentally he was a breaker of Japanese codes during WWII.

In substance it is a history of the UN-based International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) which was launched in 1985 after more than ten years of post-Stockholm negotiation in which IUCN was a significant player and which had already notched up 31 Council Meetings by the end of 2001. It seems that the reason for twice-yearly meeting is that the members (the main producer and consumer countries of tropical timber) have so far not delegated much authority to the Secretariat. They have however made the organisation a flexible forum for discussing trade and forest management policy issues and for funding research and development projects in producer countries. Among ITTO's unusual features are a provision for the producer and consumer groups to meet separately in closed session, the extent to which both trade and environmental NGOs are invited to take the floor in policy debates and, not least, the involvement as advisors of leading experts of whom Duncan Poore is almost certainly pre-eminent.

This long association with the organisation means that you are unlikely to get a more knowledgeable or perceptive account of its ups and downs than this one. While Poore is unfailingly diplomatic there are plenty of impersonal punches, a small reward for the many occasions when he must have felt acute depression at the failure to act on his and his colleagues sage recommendations. In 1990 ITTO producer members made a bold commitment which was that 'the total exports of tropical timber products should come from sustainably managed resources by the year 2000'. Prior to this a study had concluded that only some 800,000 ha out of 828 million ha of tropical moist forest in the ITTO producer countries could match this description. Surprisingly no standing machinery was put in place to measure progress towards the objective and when a formal review was set up just prior to 2000 it relied wholly on country reports with no checks. The reports contained much evidence of improved legislation, classification of a permanent forest estate, training and incorporation of guidelines, criteria and indicators into management plans, but there was no answer to the question of how much tropical forest was being sustainably managed.

Nevertheless ITTO has done much good work in influencing the international forestry debate and forestry practice. The series of guidelines for management of different forest types, which had their origin in IUCN in the 1970's, seem to have been especially valuable, while ITTO is claimed to have pioneered work on criteria and indicators which Poore considers now to have been over-elaborated by other forestry processes such as Helsinki and Montreal. The lesson here (KISS or 'keep it simple stupid': thanks to D Lawson of ANZSUSG) is one which must be applied in the context of the CBD principles on Sustainable Use of Biodiversity (see Addis report). Another question to ponder is whether the environmental NGOs were right to pull out of ITTO in the mid-90's mainly out of frustration with the producers dithering over certification. Poore suggests that the latter has done more for forestry in rich countries than for tropical forestry which was its main object, another case of the best being the enemy of the good.

As readers may infer this is really a book about forestry policy in the international sphere, which contains many provocative questions as well as wise judgements. The last chapter on the way forward is particularly intriguing, including the thought that sustainable forest management for regular income is probably not achievable, but adaptive management which treats production forests as accumulating capital to be deployed when need or opportunity present themselves may well be. Poore calls for forestry to end its isolation. The other side of the coin is that SUSG and those who have focused on the animal side of wildlife use should lose no time in getting together with colleagues working on sustainable forest management, not least to learn useful lessons.

Robin Sharp CB is Chair of the European SUSG

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