[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 2 (Monday, January 18, 1993)]
[Page 46]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Forests for the Future Initiative

 January 15, 1993

    Welcome to the White House, and thank you all for coming. And I'm 
delighted to see so many people here who care so deeply about the 
forests. And first I want to greet and welcome the representatives from 
Belize and Brazil, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico, Papua New 
Guinea, and Russia. And I congratulate you on the progress that your 
countries are making on forest management.

    We're delighted to be able to work with you on this important 
effort. And it's good to see the cochairs of the effort: Bill Reilly, 
our EPA Administrator, and then Boyden Gray, my General Counsel here, 
and the officials from all the U.S. agencies who have worked to make 
Forests for the Future a reality. And welcome also to the 
representatives of the NGO, the nongovernmental groups, working 
alongside: Kathryn Fuller of World Wildlife, Dan Dudek of the 
Environmental Defense Fund.

    Today I'm announcing a significant step forward in the effort to 
conserve and sustainably manage the Earth's forests. Last June on the 
way to the Earth summit in Rio, I announced our Forests for the Future 
initiative. And I said then it was about achieving results through 
cooperative partnerships. If we work together in mutual cooperation 
instead of trying to force painful concessions, we can make progress. 
And that's what FFI is about.

    Today we're celebrating the beginning of eight initial partnership 
activities that will make this effort a reality. These new partnerships 
will mean economic incentives for forest conservation, better 
information for communities to practice sustainable management, better 
cooperation among government researchers and conservation groups.

    I also promised last June to ask the Congress for $150 million in 
additional forest conservation assistance next year. And that is what we 
recommended in our budget statement of January 6th. And I hope the 
Congress will come through. I believe there's good support in the 
Congress for this approach.

    These partnership approaches show that with effort and insight, we 
can truly conserve healthy, productive, and successful forests for our 
future. I will obviously be recommending to my successor that he 
continue this approach.

    I just wish all of you the best. And now I'm going to turn the 
meeting over to Boyden and Bill Reilly. And thank you all very much for 
coming.

Note: The President spoke at 10:34 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House.