Future Policy Award for best forest policies

Beating 17 other nominees, these three wi nners received their awards in New York from the World Futires Council. Rwanda, which experienced a reversal in deforestation since civil strife in the mid-1990s, won the gold Future Policy Award.

The Gambia's Community Forest Policy received massive encouragement as emerging best practice in a country that has suffered significant rainforest and mangrove destruction. The Gambia policy and also the US Lacey Act with its amendment of 2008 received the Silver Awards. The three winning policies which most effectively contribute to the conservation and sustainable development of forests for the benefit of current and future generations were announced on 21 September 2011 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

"Exemplary policy solutions do exist. The Future Policy Award celebrates the best of them. The aim of the award is to raise global awareness for these policies and speed up policy action. We need visionary policies which support a sustainable and just world and protect future generations," says Alexandra Wandel, Director of the World Future Council, an international policy research organisation that provides decision-makers with effective policy solutions. The 2011 Future Policy Award shines a spotlight on the success stories and challenges faced by the world's forests and the people who depend on them.

"Rwanda has sought not only to make its forests a national priority, but has also used them as a platform to revolutionise its stances on women's rights and creating a healthy environment," says Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Honorary World Future Councillor and Founder of the Green Belt Movement.

Despite continuing population and land pressures, Rwanda is on course to reach its goal of increasing forest cover to 30% of total land area achieving a major reversal in the trend of declining forest cover. Forest cover has already increased by 37% since 1990. Massive reforestation and planting activities that promoted indigenous species and involved the local population were undertaken, and new measures such as agro-forestry and education about forest management were implemented. Rwanda has also been a pioneer in banning plastic bags: in 2008 a bill was introduced to prohibit the manufacture, import, use and sale of polythene bags in the country.

Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity said: "Rwanda is an inspiration for the world. The national policy to heal and restore nature, through a border-to-border restoration programme, will create the basis for a healthy and resilient society of the future. This policy is placing Rwanda firmly on the map as a global environmental leader, and I hope many other countries will follow."

The first Silver Award went to The Gambia's Community Forest Policy, which has achieved sustainable forest management and poverty alleviation by handing control of forests to the communities that use them. The second Silver Award went to the US Lacey Act amendment of 2008 which prohibits all trade in wood and plant products that are knowingly illegally sourced from a US state or any foreign country.

Bookmark this page: