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August 24, 2022 – Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa presided over the Fifth APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Forestry (MMRF5), which was held from August 23-25 at Le Meridien Hotel in Chiang Mai province.

It is the first time in 19 years that the APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Forestry is held in Thailand.

The MMRF5 aims to promote cooperation in technical, operational, and financial aspects among members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to achieve sustainable economic development, reduce greenhouse gas emissions through forest management, and efficiently tackle climate change issues. The MMRF5 was held under the theme of APEC 2022 meeting that is “Open. Connect. Balance.”, with the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Model as the overarching thinking.

Varawut said the meeting is highly successful as members of APEC agreed to use forest management as a key to solving several issues faced by APEC’s 21 economic zones, including illegal timber trading, sustainable forest management and achievement of the goal that Thailand has set in the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, in which the country aims to become carbon neutral in 2050 and achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2065.

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister added that the meeting saw the exchange of opinions, experiences, and policies in anti-illegal timber trading. “Every country realizes that one of the causes of climate change is illegal deforestation,” he said. “As for Thailand, we will counter this problem with the use of BCG Model to expand the forest areas and minimise the impact of climate change. In the future, we will also introduce the carbon credit system as an economic cost.”

“We will use the MMRF5 stage to show our stance, and will adopt new knowledge presented by APEC members to create mutual benefits regarding forest management, community economic development, and climate change prevention,” said Varawut.

Varawut also thanked APEC forest ministers for joining the meeting and sharing ideas that will lead to increased cooperation in forest conservation. “I also thanked all members for promoting sustainable forest management in the region so that we have expanded the forest areas to 174.38 million rai or 27.9 million hectares,” he said.

After the meeting, APEC leaders paid a visit to the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden in Chiang Mai’s Mae Rim district. The 6,500 rai garden is one of the most complete forest areas in the country that helps demonstrate Thailand’s potential in hosting the MMRF5.

Natural Resources and Environment Ministry permanent-secretary Jatuporn Buruspat added that Thailand will take the opportunity at the forum to call on and encourage APEC members to overcome any conflicts through cooperating, promoting, and developing initiatives by highlighting three “If” scenarios: 1) “Business-as-usual”, 2) “Aspiration” which calls on all APEC members to set milestones as a reference point to achieve targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and acting accordingly to produce concrete results and, 3) to trigger “Disruption” with expected environmental catastrophic changes.

Jatuporn noted that Minister Varawut will put forward the concept of Thailand’s initiative-BCG Model to the MMRF5, and will encourage all APEC members to deploy appropriate tools to promote legal timber trade, combat illegal timber business, and take other related actions.

Published : August 24, 2022

By : THE NATION