Hadil da Rocha Vianna of Brazil, Jan McAlpine of the United States, Franz Perrez of Switzerland and Peter Csoka of the UNFF Secretariat discuss the text of the Decisions.

Efforts to Reach Global Agreement Fail at UNFF-5
The fifth session of the UN Forum on Forests concluded Friday, with many involved conceding failure. The session had begun with the lofty goal of reaching a global agreement on all types of forests, but as negotiations continued throughout the first week and into the second, it became apparent that the gaps between country and regional group positions were too significant to overcome at this time, and participants had "bitten off more than they could chew."

The morning session was suspended so that the UNFF-5 Bureau could meet to complete the Decisions. Their distribution to delegates in the afternoon session resulted in frenzied conferring both within and between national delegations and regionl groups, followed by discussion and debate of the decisions. After closing statements and final remarks from delegations, UNFF-5 Chair Manuel Rodriguez Becerra gaveled the new UNFF-6 session to a suspension at 6:45 PM; UNFF-6 will resume February 13, 2006 in New York.