INC-Forests3 completed a second reading and most of a third reading of the draft LBA, working primarily in plenary.
Two working groups were established and convened on Wednesday to focus on compliance and whether to bring the LBA under the UN umbrella.
4 February 2013: The Third Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe (INC-Forests3), which convened from 28 January-1 February 2013 in Antalya, Turkey, continued to revise draft negotiating text for a legally binding agreement (LBA) as revised by INC-Forests2 in September 2012; considered the outcome of intersessional work undertaken by an expert meeting on key terms and definitions; and addressed a paper on the implications of various options for bringing the LBA “under the United Nations umbrella,” which was produced by independent consultants at the Chair’s request.
The five-day session was attended by 150 participants, including delegates from 35 governments and the European Union (EU), and observers from the government of Japan and 18 regional and international organizations, producer associations and non-governmental organizations. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization serves as the Secretariat during sessions of INC-Forests, assisted by the European Forest Institute and the Liaison Unit Madrid of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (FOREST EUROPE).
INC-Forests3 completed a second reading and most of a third reading of the draft LBA, working primarily in plenary. Two working groups were established and convened on Wednesday to focus on compliance and whether to bring the LBA under the UN umbrella. Informal contact groups convened in evenings and during lunch and dinner breaks.
On Friday afternoon, 1 February, INC-Forests3 was suspended. This followed a decision to reconvene INC-Forests3 from 3-5 April 2013 in Saint Petersburg, the Russian Federation, in order to have additional time to complete key tasks before the convening of the last INC-Forests session, allowed under its mandate, to be held in June in Warsaw, Poland. These key tasks include: the decision on whether to bring the LBA under the UN umbrella; initiating legal scrutiny of the final clauses; negotiating financial and compliance provisions; and deciding on the roadmap for negotiations from Saint Petersburg to the FOREST EUROPE Extraordinary Ministerial Conference slated for late 2013 in Madrid, Spain, where the results of the negotiations will be presented to ministers for possible adoption and opening for signature. [IISD RS coverage][INC-Forests3 website]