Archived press release

Forests and people under threat from trade talks

16 November 2005

The livelihoods of millions of the world's poorest people are at risk from new trade rules, a report from Friends of the Earth reveals today (Wednesday 16^th November) [1]. The new research, launched in Parliament, comes as Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair pushed for even faster trade liberalisation ahead of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial in Hong Kong [2].

Negotiators recently conceded that it would not be feasible to reach agreement on the whole Doha "development" agenda in Hong Kong [3], but developing countries are still under pressure to make concessions, particularly on non-agricultural issues. Speaking at Mansion House on Monday (14th), Tony Blair said: "We need a comprehensive, ambitious agreement to cut barriers to trade in the three key areas: agriculture, non-agricultural market access, and services."

Friends of the Earth's report, Can't See the Forest for The Trees - How the WTO is gambling with our future, highlights how WTO attempts to relax trade rules in natural resources are likely to result in an increase in logging and the commercial exploitation of forest products, damaging poor communities, the natural environment and exacerbating climate change.

The talks, under the Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) strand of the negotiations, aim to liberalise trade in natural resources, including forest products, by reducing import taxes and removing non-tariff barriers [4]. In his speech, Tony Blair said that NAMA could benefit Europe by 20 billion euros a year. But evidence gathered by Friends of the Earth suggests that developing countries will pay the price.

Friends of the Earth's Trade Campaigner Eve Mitchell said:

"We are all dependent on the world's forests but now the UK Government wants to trade them away. This could be disastrous for the environment, exacerbating climate change, destroying wildlife habitat and removing a source of food and income from some of the world's poorest people. How can the Government claim that these trade talks will benefit people in developing countries if this is the effect it will have?"

The report highlights the WTO and the EU's failure to fully assess the impacts of an increase in trade. The world's native forests provide valuable habitat for wildlife, but are also a source of sustenance for many people in the developing world. According to UN figures, 90 per cent of the world's poorest 1.2 billion people depend on forests in some way for their livelihood [5].

Forests provide "eco-system" services which are vital to the whole world, for example regulating water flows, preventing soil erosion and regulating rainfall and river flows. Forests also play a crucial role in the fight against climate change, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But the world's forests are already under threat, with 60 per cent of the world's natural forest now found in just seven countries - Russia, the US, Brazil, China, Canada, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Just last week, inconsistencies in the EU position on NAMA were highlighted at a joint hearing in Brussels. Speakers highlighted how both the UK Government and the EU's free trade policies are undermining other commitments to sustainable development [6].

According to the UN Millennium Taskforce "The world's poor depend disproportionately on ecosystem services to provide for their systems of small-scale agriculture, grazing, harvesting hunting and fishing. Without access to infrastructure providing safe drinking water, electricity, fuel and transportation, poor people rely on natural sources of clean air and water, fertile soil, renewable energy and biodiversity to meet their needs," (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: synthesis).

Recent reports have highlighted the value of biodiversity. According to the cost benefit analysis of biodiversity, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the economic benefits of maintaining a wide range of species in the rainforest outweighs the costs of conservation.

New projections from the World Bank suggest that increased trade liberalization would bring far fewer benefits to developing countries than originally believed - with the effects of implementing the Doha Round bringing benefits of no more than a penny a day per capita in developing countries. The result is likely to be a fall of less than one per cent in the number of people living in poverty [6].

Notes

[1] Can't See the Forest for The Trees (PDF) - How the WTO is gambling with our future is published by Friends of the Earth.

[2] Lord Mayor's Banquet speech 14 November 2005

[3] www.wto.org/english/news_e/news05_e/stat_lamy_nov05_e.htm

[4] Energy saving labels may be banned

[5] The Food and Agriculture Organisation published a report in 2004 examining the relationship between trade and forest management. It found, "In many developing countries, domestic forest products trade is important for economic development and the livelihoods of rural communities, even if it may appear to contribute relatively little to gross national product."

[6] Wednesday 9^th November, European Parliament hearing with Friends of the Earth Europe on the EU's responsibility at the WTO with regard to environment, gender and development. See www.wtoconference.org/

[7] See www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/pubs/wp/05-01ShrinkingGains.pdf (PDF†)

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust