Criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management

Criteria & Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management (C&I) are policy instruments by which sustainability of forest management in the country/region, or progress towards Sustainable forest management (SFM), may be evaluated and reported on. C&I is a conjunctive term for a set of objectives and the variables/descriptions allowing to evaluate whether the objectives are achieved or not.

There are many various sets of C&I in the world that are used by particular regional SFM processes (e.g. FOREST EUROPE, Montreal Process), international organisations and their activities (e.g. FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment) or certification of forest management and forest products (e.g. Forest Stewardship Council, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification). Signatory countries of particular processes or certification schemes can develop their national sets derived from the set of process/scheme.

Possible uses of criteria and indicators

Criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management:

Levels of use

Criteria and indicators are applied at different levels:[3]

Early history

The first FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment was published in 1948. It comprised five indicators, however, their main focus was to assess the availability of timber, not sustainability of forest management as a whole.[4]

The history of the idea of C&I of SFM goes back to 1992 when the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted the “Forest Principles”* and Chapter 11 of Agenda 21. At about the same time, the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) did some pioneering work on “Criteria for the Measurement of Sustainable Tropical Forest Management.” Following this summit, the concept of “criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management” gained increasing international attention.[1]

FOREST EUROPE: Pan-European Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management

The first set of Pan-European C&I, based on documents adopted by two Expert Level Follow-Up Meetings of the Helsinki Conference, was adopted by the third Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe on 2–4 June 1998 in Lisbon/Portugal as an Annex 1 of the Resolution L2.[5] This set consisted of 6 Criteria of SFM, 20 quantitative indicators and 80 descriptive indicators (4 per each quantitative indicator).

In the meantime, knowledge and data collection systems as well as information needs have gradually developed further. Thus, initiated through the Lisbon Conference, the MCPFE decided to improve the existing set. Document named Improved Pan-European Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management[6] was adopted at expert level at the MCPFE Expert Level Meeting, 7–8 October 2002 in Vienna, Austria (before Vienna Conference). The 6 criteria remained unchanged, however, the number of quantitative indicators was increased to 35, and the system of descriptive indicators, renamed to qualitative indicators, was significantly simplified to 17 indicators.

The last update[7] of Pan-European set was performed before Madrid Conference at the "Forest Europe" Expert Level Meeting 30 June – 2 July 2015, in Madrid, Spain. The set of quantitative indicators was slightly altered (34 indicators); the system of qualitative indicators was further simplified to 11 indicators, 5 of them now forming something like an "unofficial 7th criterion", while the remaining 6 are the official 6 criteria.

Criteria

Criteria characterise or define the essential elements or set of conditions or processes by which sustainable forest management may be assessed (MCPFE, 1998b). There are 6 criteria in the Pan-European set:

  1. Maintenance and Appropriate Enhancement of Forest Resources and their Contribution to Global Carbon Cycles
  2. Maintenance of Forest Ecosystem Health and Vitality
  3. Maintenance and Encouragement of Productive Functions of Forests (Wood and Non-Wood)
  4. Maintenance, Conservation and Appropriate Enhancement of Biological Diversity in Forest Ecosystems
  5. Maintenance and Appropriate Enhancement of Protective Functions in Forest Management (notably soil and water)
  6. Maintenance of other socioeconomic functions and conditions[8]

Indicators

The indicators show changes over time for each criterion and demonstrate the progress made towards its specified objective (MCPFE, 1998a).

Montreal Process

The Montreal Process (MP) Working Group on C&I for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests was launched in 1994 as a response to the Rio Forest Principles. Original set of C&I was adopted by Santiago Declaration in 1995. It consited of 7 criteria and 67 indicators. Current set represents the 5th version of MP C&I and it has 7 criteria and 54 indicators (both qualitative and quantitative.[10]

Criteria

  1. Conservation of biological diversity
  2. Maintenance of productive capacity of forest ecosystems
  3. Maintenance of forest ecosystem health and vitality
  4. Conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources
  5. Maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycles
  6. Maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple socio- economic benefits to meet # the needs of societies
  7. Legal, institutional and economic framework for forest conservation and sustainable management

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 The Montréal Process. "Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests" (PDF). www.montrealprocess.org. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 FOREST EUROPE. "SFM Criteria & Indicators". www.foresteurope.org. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 FAO. "Main uses of C&I for sustainable forest management". www.fao.org. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  4. FAO (2015). Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015 How are the world’s forests changing? (PDF). FAO. p. 7. ISBN 978-92-5-108821-0.
  5. Lisbon Resolution L2 "Pan-European Criteria, Indicators and PEOLG for Sustainable Forest Management"
  6. Other Vienna documents "Improved Pan-European Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management"
  7. Other Madrid documents "Updated pan-European indicators for sustainable forest management"
  8. "Report of the MCPFE Open-Ended Ad-Hoc Working Group on "Sustainability Criteria" For Forest Biomass Production, Including Bioenergy" (PDF). MCPFE Working Group. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  9. Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe; Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (2006). The Pan-European Understanding of the Linkage Between the Ecosystem Approach and Sustainable Forest Management. MCPFE, Liaison Unit Warsaw, PEBLDS Joint Secretariat, Council of Europe. p. 15.
  10. The Montréal Process. "Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators" (PDF). www.montrealprocess.org. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 25, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.