Abstract
Sustainable forest management (SFM) has become one of major environmental debates for the international community. This is because of the multifunctional importance of forest resources for the entire planet, namely ecological, socio-economic, cultural and climatic balance. General awareness of the multifunctional importance of forests unfortunately coincides with the observed increase of threats to these ‘international public goods’. To tackle continuous deforestation and degradation, the international community through the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and its predecessors has attempted to adopt an international legally-binding agreement on sustainable management based on the Forest Principles. The narrow success of such international negotiations led to explore another option to this issue through the review of some regional agreements based on the inductive approach. This method is used by International Court of Justice for seeking the customary international law through the States behaviours or conducts. The paper is focussed on two regional regimes on SFM: the Central America Regional Convention and the European Union Resolution related sustainable forests management. The examination of States practice shows that such regional instruments fulfil all the requirements for having the status of the emerging customary law at these regions.
Highlights
Forests play a key role in the development and lives of communities worldwide
According to provisions of article 38 (1. b) of the Statutes of the International Court of Justice (ICJ): “The Court, whose function is to decide in accordance with international law such disputes as are submitted to it, shall apply: International custom, as evidence of general practice accepted as law.”
An examination of the relationship between Sustainable forest management (SFM) and customary international law reveals that consistent and effective States practice especially that of Central America and the European Union is progressively built and emerged a customary standard on sustainable forest management that was initially regional level. It www.ccsenet.org/jsd would be reasonable even logic to consider the sustainable management of forest resources at regional levels (Central America and European Union) as legally binding, not at a conventional manner, but at a customary one
Summary
Forests play a key role in the development and lives of communities worldwide. they are carbon dioxide traps and biodiversity reserves (Humphreys and Palo, 1998; Schoene and Netto, 2005). This constant solicitation of international law in environmental management resulted in a kind of normative increase in the establishment of regulations for the global environment and for the preservation of natural resources (Daillier and Pellet, 2002). In its Advisory Opinion on the environment and as a guide for countries and other actors, the dictum of the International Court of Justice (ICJ, 1996), was: “...that the environment is not an abstraction but represents the living space, the quality of life and the very health of human beings, including generations unborn” This analysis is made in a global context marked by the effect of various paradigms of different types, which influence forest management and international law at the same time (Dryzek, 2007). The third section discusses the sustainable forest management States practice according the requirement of customary international/regional law
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
