EXPERTS from the 182 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity are meeting in Montreal from today, Monday to November 16 to assess the threats facing the world’s forests and to identify practical solutions.

“Despite their importance, forests across many parts of the globe and in particular in developing countries continue to be fuelled and cleared at an alarming rate. It is my sincere hope that humankind can tackle the root causes of this, which, in many countries, lie in poverty and the desperate circumstances that billions of people across the globe find themselves in, said Klaus Topfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

It is estimated that 500 million people around the world, depend on forests for their livelihood — an incentive to preserve the health of forests and to protect them as a sustainable resource for future generations.

Still cradles of life, forests also, perform all kinds of practical services that benefit modern humans. They produce the oxygen we breathe and suck up air pollution.

Each part of the forest supports life. The soil is full of uncounted numbers of microbes, insects and fungi, essential to recycling organic matter, and thus to the survival of all life on earth.

Larger animals live on the forest floor, and the shrub and tree canopy layers are vital to birds. There are about 1.5 million known species in the world, and a true number of species may be 10 times more than that. Many of these spend their lives growing, burrowing, wriggling, or plodding along in forests, or flying through trees.

The extent of forested lands has made it possible for birds and animals to range freely in search of food and appropriate climate; the resulting horizontal and vertical complexity of the forest and its density of life creates biodiversity.

Tropical forests generate the richest biodiversity, as the energy generated by the equatorial sun encourages life to proliferate amid abundant nutrients.

“Natural forests harbour the greatest variety of animal, microbial and plant species of any terrestrial ecosystem. They provide us with a vast array of goods and services. They are the cornerstone of sustainable development,” said Hamdallah Zedan, the Convention’s executive secretary.

“Conserving and sustainably using these invaluable ecosystems is a major goal of the convention’s work programme. Research is still needed, but it is now time to accelerate concrete action to preserve the world’s forests.”

The role of the seventh meeting of the Convention’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and technological Advice (SBSTTA) is to provide expert advice to the ministers and diplomats attending the sixth session of the Conference of Parties to the Convention, which takes place in The Hague from April 8-26 next year.

Drawing on the work of an ad-hoc technical expert group on Forest Biological Diversity set up by the Conference of the Parties in May 2000, the SBSTTA will consider the current status of forest biodiversity and major trends and threats. It will identify practical solutions that could be implemented locally, nationally or globally. The SBSTTA will address in particular, the need to widen the focus on the Convention’s current forests work programme from research to practical action.

The Montreal meeting will also discuss three specific threats to forest biological diversity: climate change, human-induced uncontrolled forest fires, and the impact of unsustainable harvesting of non-timber forest resources, including in particular bushmeat and living biological resources. Delegates will try to identify how to manage and reduce these threats.

Other biodiversity issues, such as the loss of pollinators in agricultural lands, plant conservation strategy, including possible time-bound quantifiable targets for meeting the objectives of the Convention with regard to plant conservation, incentive measures, impact assessment, will also be addressed by the meeting.