The shortlisted policies are: the Constitution of Bhutan, especially Article 5 on the environment; The Gambia's Community Forest Policy; the Lacey Act in the US, including a criminally enforceable ban on the import of illegally harvested timber; Nepal's Community Forestry Programme; Rwanda's National Forest Policy and Law prohibiting the manufacture, import, use and sale of polythene bags; and Switzerland's Federal Act on Forests and National Forest Programme.
5 July 2011: Policies from Bhutan, The Gambia, Nepal, Rwanda, Switzerland and the US have been shortlisted for the Future Policy Award, which aims to celebrate policies that contribute best to the conservation and sustainable development of forests for the benefit of current and future generations.
The Future Policy Award is granted by the World Future Council, an international policy research organization. The focus of this year’s award is forests, in recognition of the International Year of Forests, with the central theme “Forests for People.”
The shortlisted policies are: the Constitution of Bhutan, especially Article 5 on the environment; The Gambia’s Community Forest Policy; the Lacey Act in the US, as amended in 2008, including a criminally enforceable ban on the import of illegally harvested timber; Nepal’s Community Forestry Programme; Rwanda’s National Forest Policy and Law no. 57/2008 relating to the prohibition of the manufacture, import, use and sale of polythene bags in the country; and Switzerland’s Federal Act on Forests and National Forest Programme.
The three winning policies will be announced on 21 September 2011, at UN Headquarters in New York, US. The announcement will be followed by an awards ceremony hosted by the World Future Council, the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) Secretariat, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the Wildlife Conservation Society. [Joint World Future Council/CBD/UNFF/FAO Press Release]