Concerned with rapid global deforestation and forest degradation, the WCFSD has proposed that a Forest Security Council (FSC)—modelled on the G-8—be established to provide leadership on resolving the forest crisis. While supportive of UN-based or other intergovernmental processes, it would not formally be a part of those processes.

The composition of the proposed Forest Security Council needs to be designed so that it transcends historic political divides that create "a conceptual and political obstacle to finding solutions to issues in a world that is so ecologically and economically interconnected and mutually dependent." Instead of naming possible member-countries at the outset, the WCFSD has proposed criteria for their inclusion. Countries that make likely candidates are Brazil and other Amazon-pact countries, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Sweden, Finland and USA. To back its proposal, the WCFSD cites examples of many countries and regions that have come together in the past for the protection and defence of resources strategic to them. It points out that the Western European countries primarily joined forces to become the European Union to safeguard their coal and steel resources.

The Forest Security Council aims to provide quick responses and solutions to forest-related issues. To achieve this goal, leadership at the highest political and executive level will have to play a catalyst role. However, the concept and process will not remain confined to governments and officials. For any intervention to be effective, work should progress across several streams of society simultaneously, integrating the efforts of academia and research institutions, NGOs, forest industry corporations, scientists and communities.

Insofar as the agenda of the Council is concerned, it could be selected from the proposals of the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Forests and the WCFSD and focus on strategic interventions and developing methods and measures that would address the roots of the forestry crisis. [defending forests]

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Word Watch
	intergovernmental processes n. negotiations between more than two national governments whereby voting power remains with the governments involved, though others who are not official government representatives may take part in the negotiations More in Word Watch Glossary
In Depth
	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The state of the world's forests. Oxford, UK: FAO, 1997. 200 p.
Virtual Ideas
	International Tropical Timber Organization World Forest Institute national forestry profiles

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