17 June 2008
Gordon Brown has offered his support to a new fund aimed at preserving one of the world’s last remaining ancient forests.
Read the speech
Prime Minister:
Let me start by saying it is the greatest of honours to join you all this afternoon to mark the launch of something that is dear to my heart and dear to the hearts of everybody here, the Congo Basin Forest Fund, and to be standing here alongside leaders from government, from the private sector, from non-governmental organisations from Africa and all across the world, all of us coming together to galvanise a new international impetus to secure the future of one of our last remaining ancient forests, and I am pleased that Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister of Norway, who has done so much, is joining me at this launch today.
It has taken he vision of so many people and the commitment of so many others to bring us to this point today, but I think all of us would like to pay tribute to the pioneer of all this, the inspiration behind what we are doing, Wangari Maathai, a great leader who has done so much to encourage the rest of the world to take seriously the problems of climate change.
Winston Churchill once said that courage is the greatest quality of all, because upon it all else depends and she is an incredibly courageous woman who has fought the battle, she has won the Nobel Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, and she is an encouragement to everyone who cares about our planet.
And I want to thank both Wangari and my great friend, Paul Martin, for being the joint chairmen of this important fund. Paul is the incredibly successful Finance Minister and Prime Minister of Canada. He has been a great friend of mine for many years. I look to him for advice and inspiration. He is a committed advocate for Africa and is a man who is rightly held, right across the world, in great international regard for his work both on the economy and to combat climate change and I am delighted he is here with us today and that he has undertaken this important job.
And I am grateful to Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, for hosting the Fund and to all members of the governing council who are here today.
No-one can be in any doubt that protecting the global environment is the critical foundation for the future prosperity and security of all our countries. If our economies are to flourish, if global poverty is to be banished, if the wellbeing of all the world’s people is to be enhanced, not just for this generation but for succeeding generations, we must take care of the natural environment and we must be stewards of the resources upon which our economic activity depends.
Today we understand more than ever before the role of the world’s forests in stabilising our global climate, and we understand also, as Wangari Maathai has pointed out to us, the terrible consequences that result when forests are logged, burnt or cleared, releasing vast amounts of carbon into the environment.
Deforestation, as so many of you here know, and the world should know, alone accounts for one-fifth of man-made emissions. It accounts for more emissions than the whole of the world’s entire transport sector, so our efforts to preserve our forests must be just as forceful and determined as our endeavours to develop cleaner, greener technology and to deploy low carbon forms of energy, and securing the future of the Congo Basin Forest, the second largest in the world, will be one of the most effective brakes on climate change, and it is indeed a noble endeavour.
Now today we know that forest is disappearing at a rate of 10,000 square kilometres a year. We know that if we do not act now, by 2040 two-thirds will have been destroyed. To reverse that trend, to find a way to save the forests in which the futures of so many depend, we will need the combined efforts of governments, business leaders, NGOs, civic society, within this region and across the world. A truly international coalition that will preserve the forest at the same time as sustaining livelihoods, and we want the United Kingdom, as Douglas Alexander has said, and as Barry Gardiner who has been involved from our government in advising on this agrees, we want to play our part.
Already countries in the Congo Basin are leading the way. They are developing policies to protect and manage the future of the forest. The Forestry Ministers of Central Africa set out their priorities in the Convergence Plan and already many of you here today are working to empower forest communities to address these problems themselves. But they cannot make changes overnight and they cannot make them alone and that is why they need the support of the rest of the world.
The European Union is working with countries in the Congo Basin to tackle illegal logging. It is also taking steps to keep illegally logged timber out of its market. Here in Britain we have allocated to the countries of the Congo Basin the first £50 million of our £800 million Environmental Transformation Fund and in addition to the money we have already committed to the fund I can announce we will be allocating a further £8 million today for innovative start-up activities that will improve our knowledge of the forest as a resource, is designed to empower local communities and to build the capacities of governments within the region.
And to support these new initiatives, we also need to look at innovative ways of funding forestry, preserving the forest’s benefits for our entire planet. There is growing acceptance by the international community that we need to put in place financial incentives to make the world’s forests worth more standing than cut down. And that is why Johan Eliasch is conducting his review to consider how best to finance reductions in deforestation, and I am pleased that Johan is also with us today and I look forward to receiving his report later this year.
So today is a big step forward towards securing the future of the Congo Basin, but it is just a start. Here at Lancaster House we have held many famous conferences, conferences that were held in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, as country after country became independent and joined the Commonwealth of Nations. Today we hold a conference that unites so many of these countries together in a common project with the rest of the world.
And I am delighted that Jens Stoltenberg is here this afternoon as Prime Minister of Norway to announce his support for the Fund. He has taken a long term interest, and a long term personal interest in not only this issue but all issues associated with the environment. And I am proud to count him as a friend, and I urge governments and organisations across the world to follow his lead, to join this project, and although already working in the Congo Basin in our collective efforts to preserve their forests, we know that more must be done, and each of us has a part to play.
Working apart we would fail, but working together I have no doubt that this is a challenge we can meet and surmount and we do not have the time to falter, so let us work together for this better future.
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