Country: Republic of France
Committee: ECOSOC
Subject: Deforestation in South Asia and the Pacific Islands

Alarmed by the rapid destruction of the rain forests in South Asia, at the current rate of 3.9 million hectares per year (a 1.2% annual decrease), and

Noting specifically, but not limiting the effect of this resolution to, the nations of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, Vietnam, and New Zealand as countries with large areas of potentially at risk forests, and

Deeply disturbed by the use of permanently destructive slash-and-burn methods to clear forests for inefficiently used farm land, residential zones, and industry, and

Also disturbed by the exploitation of these precious forests to meet the growing demands of ecotourism, forest-based recreation, hydro-electric power plants, and water, and

Understanding the current economic role that these forests play in industry and agriculture, and

Noting the substantial progress made by such non-governmental organizations such as the Master Plan for Forestry, based in Thailand, and the Native Land Trust Board, based in Fiji using researched sustainable timber-cutting methods, and

Realizing that at the current rate of non-sustainable deforestation and timber cutting in these countries both their economies and their ecologies will soon be left barren, and

Realizing that this destruction of our exhaustible forest resources in this region must be halted:

The United Nations ECOSOC does hereby:

1. Requests a recommendation made by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) concerning the most expeditious methods of transforming South Asian nations from non-sustainable timber methods to efficient, totally sustainable ones,

a) This recommendation will place major focus on the following pertinent issues:
      1) Potential divisions of existing natural forest regions into either national or private preservation sections and sections for timber use,
      2) The sponsorship of reforestation programs with the aid of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s (ASEAN) Institute of Forest Management and the (ASEAN) Tree Seed Center,
      3) National programs for the manifestation of agroforestry in the private sector to reduce and, eventually dissolve, the current strains being placed on natural forest regions,
      4) Efforts to train local farming organizations about more efficient land use methods, more specifically organic methods and profitable crop-rotation,
      5) Each nation’s ability to implement ITTO’s (International Tropical Timber Organization) standard’s for the sustainable management of tropical forests quickly and cost-effectively,
      6) The possibility of the use of less-damaging methods of forestry such as forest-harvesting (a method that involves the removal of only a percentage of valuable commodities from forests without destroying the surrounding ecosystem) in an effort to reduce the strain of these ecological improvements on the economy,
b) Additional information and research will be provided by related organizations, including the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Southeast Asian Regional Community Forestry Training Center,
c) The compilation of this recommendation should be completed within one year for its presentation to the respective nations contained within it and to the United Nation’s Environmental Programme (UNEP); and

2. Encourages the regional support, monetary or otherwise, of the instructions provided by the above-mentioned recommendation; and

3. Requests financial sponsorship of the implementation of this recommendation through the following means:

a) Previously mentioned organizations with independent budgets,
b) Nations receiving the aid of this recommendation,
c) Relevant divisions of the World Bank,
d) Private investors and agroforestry entrepreneurs,
e) Related NGO's and IGO's.