Having met in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam from 28-30 November 1993;

CONSIDERING that forests in ASEAN countries represent 62% of the total land area of the region;

RECALLING the Declaration of ASEAN Concord signed in Bali, Indonesia on 24 February 1976 under which member states shall take cooperative action in their national and regional development programmes;

REAFFIRMING the commitment to the Jakarta Consensus on ASEAN Tropical Forestry reached at the Third Meeting of the ASEAN Economic Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry in Jakarta on 13 August 1981;

SUBSCRIBING to principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration: “States have in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other states or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction".

NOTING the Paris Declaration adopted by the Tenth World Forestry Congress in Paris from 1 7 - 2 6 September 1991;

RECALLING the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Non-legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of all Types of Forests (The Forest Principles) and the relevant chapters of Agenda 21 as adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) 1992 as well as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biological Diversity;

RECALLING the Singapore Declaration signed at the Fourth ASEAN Summit, 1992;

NOTING the Bandung Initiative for Global Partnership in Sustainable Forest Development agreed at the Global Forest Conference in Bandung from l7-20 February 1993;

NOTING the decision taken by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development to review, interalia, forestry-related matters at its Session in 1995;

NOTING the on-going United Nations Conference for the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) 1983;

DOES HEREBY 

Follow-up to UNCED Decisions Relating to Forestry

REAFFIRM the commitment of ASEAN member states to the decisions of UNCED particularly those which relate to forestry;

CALL ON all countries and interested parties to uphold their commitment to these decisions;

UNDERSCORE the need for the expeditious implementation of the UNCED Forest Principles by all countries with emphasis on:

• the sovereign rights of countries to utilize and manage their forest resources on a sustainable basis;
  
  

• the development and application of sustainable forest management and the sustainability criteria to all types of forests and timbers; 
  
  

• efforts toward the greening of the world and raising the world's forest cover notably by developed countries; 
  
  

• fulfilment of the commitment to provide new and additional financial resources as well as environmentally sound technology on favourable terms to developing countries to enhance their capacity to sustainably manage, conserve and develop their forest resources; and
  
  

• promotion of a supportive international economic climate and trade in forest products based on non-discriminatory and multilaterally agreed rules and procedures as well as removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers and other impediments of trade;

        URGE the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development to undertake all necessary preparations and consultations to ensure a substantive and fruitful review of forestry and related matters at its Session in 1995. incorporating, inter alia;

• review of the implementation of the UNCED Forest Principles;
  
  

• planning for the effective implementation of chapter 11 of Agenda 21 based on the four programme areas identified;
  
  

• review of measures and initiatives directly affecting forestry which are being pursued in other chapters of Agenda 21 as well as under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the proposed Convention on Desertification being negotiated;
  
  

• review of the roles and achievements of existing international arrangements, organisations and institutions on forestry with the view to planning an efficient and effective international institutional framework for global forestry;
  

Certification and Labelling of Timbers

• REAFFIRM the commitment of ASEAN member states to the attainment of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) Sustainability Objective Year 2000;
  
  

• URGE that countries committed to the ITTO Sustainability Objective Year 2000 should not be imposed with regulations on certification and labelling earlier than the stipulated time-frame;
  
  

• OPPOSE strongly any form of unilateral and discriminatory certification and labelling on tropical timber and products;
  
  

• ASSERT that any certification and labelling scheme, if deemed desirable and practicable, should be made applicable to all types of timbers and should be based on internationally agreed guidelines, criteria and standards;
  

United Nations Conference on the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to ITTO, 1983

    EXPRESS serious concern on the continuing deadlock over the core issues confronting the conference;

   CALL ON consumer and developed countries to:

• commit themselves, within the Successor Agreement, to the attainment of the ITTO Sustainability Objective Year 2000 in respect of their non-tropical timbers and forests;
  
  

•  fulfill their responsibility of providing new and additional financial resources as well as environmentally sound technology on favourable terms to developing countries to enhance their capacity to attain the ITTO Sustainability Objective Year 2000
  
  

•  facilitate, under the Successor Agreement, the formulation of appropriate definitions of sustainability for non-tropical timbers and forests; the setting up of criteria, indicators and guidelines of sustainability for non-tropical timbers and forests, and the sharing of information on the progress towards the attainment of the ITTO Sustainability Year 2000 in respect of their non - tropical timbers and forests, including a comprehensive review in 1995 and periodic assessments.