The Forest Principles (also Rio Forest Principles) is the informal name given to the Non-Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests (1992), a document produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit.
It is a non-legally binding document that makes several recommendations for conservation and sustainable development forestry.
At the Earth Summit, the negotiation of the document was complicated by demands by developing nations in the Group of 77 for increased foreign aid in order to pay for the setting aside of forest reserves.
Developed nations resisted those demands, and the final document was a compromise.
