The World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development (WCFSD) was set up to bridge the deep divisions that surfaced during discussions on sustainable development of forests at the Earth Summit in 1992. Launched in 1995 by the InterAction Council of former heads of state and backed by the Woods Hole Research Center, the WCFSD began life as an independent international task force to provide "a global vision of forests in the twenty first century." Former Prime Minister of Sweden, Ola Ullsten, and former Minister of Population and Environment of Indonesia, Emi Salim, were chosen as co-chairs of the Commission.

Acrimonious debate at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), or Earth Summit, in Rio ended with no firm agreement on forests and a "non-legally binding" set of guidelines known as the "Forest Principles." This deadlock posed a challenge to the world community after the success of the other two high-profile Rio agreements on biodiversity and climate change, which also depend on sustainably managed forests.

The WCFSD, a group of 26 eminent people with a background in politics, policy-making, science and forestry from 24 countries from the North and South, set out to build confidence between developed and developing countries through dialogue on this crucial issue. To assist in its work program the WCFSD established a Science Council and a group of resource persons drawn from leading forest policy and environmental experts. The Commission focused on international cooperation and increasing awareness of the dual function of forests as essential ecosystems and contributors to economic development. And over the past few years it held regional public hearings in five continents where various stakeholders—indigenous peoples, experts, environmentalists and industrialists—expressed their views.

After nearly three years of work the WCFSD's report, which contains the Commission's findings, has been completed and is due for release 19 April 1999. It calls for a clear and conscious priority to conserve and protect the world's primary forests and with them certain fragile, endangered and rare forest ecosystems from the onslaught of unrestricted human use and to manage other forest areas to ensure sustainable livelihoods and ecosystems. To enable this it contains several new approaches to the forest crisis including the development of unique structures to help civil society monitor what is going on in the forests, coordinate efforts to establish sustainable forest policy practices, investigate abuses related to forests and reward good forest management.

The Commission has proposed many innovative ideas on preparing the ground for the sustainable management of forests. These include the Forest Trust concept (written as "ForesTrust" by the Commission) to be introduced at the local, national and international levels. It is designed to give voice to citizens' concerns in a consultative forum on forest-related issues between governments, NGOs, business and other groups. The WCFSD also proposes to establish a Forest Capital Index (FCI), which would provide a uniform numerical indicator of forest resources, facilitate a global framework for valuation of forest ecosystem services and create opportunities for market mechanisms to compensate for those services.

The Commission's proposal challenges organizations involved in forestry and forest conservation—NGOs, the private sector, intergovernmental institutions and national governments—to establish the equitable working arrangements critical to resolving forest-related issues; and to nations, which own, consume or trade in most of the world's forest resources to exercise political leadership on international forest issues. [international dialogue to resolve forest crisis]

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Word Watch
	Rio agreements n. multi-lateral agreements reached at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 known individually as the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, Convention on Biological Diversity and Framework Convention on Climate Change More in Word Watch Glossary
In Depth
	De Sa, Anthony . "The prospects for an international environmental agreement on forests." International Environmental Affairs 10 (Winter 1998): 18-39.
Virtual Ideas
	World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development Linkages reporting on Global Forest Policy Woods Hole Research Center: Policy and World's Forests

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