ABSTRACT
The conservation and sustainable management of forests became a politically important environmental issue in the mid-1980s, when international concern over deforestation grew to such an extent that the first tentative international initiatives to tackle the problem were established. This chapter begins by explaining deforestation as an international political issue using public goods theory. It then presents an analytical overview of international forest politics, beginning with the negotiations that took place at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, before tracking the aftermath of the Rio process, which has seen the establishment of a series of international forest bodies within the UN system. These bodies have agreed to several non-legally binding agreements but, despite several attempts, there is still no consensus as to whether a global forests convention should be negotiated.
