Sustainable forest management has emerged as a priority item on the international agenda. The utility of internationally agreed criteria that characterize sustainable forestry was recognized in the Forest Principles as well as in Agenda 21: Chapter 11 negotiated at Rio. Prior to and since UNCED, a number of initiatives have been undertaken to describe criteria, guidelines and indicators of sustainable forestry in the tropical, boreal and temperate regions. An analysis of these initiatives suggests that there are some common areas of the criteria that characterize sustainable forest management. This paper is intended to provide a background as well as a general overview of the current initiatives and thinking on the criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management to facilitate international deliberations on this crucial issue.
Forests are nature's most bountiful and versatile natural resource, providing a wide range of economic, environmental, social and cultural benefits. While forests are an important source of economic development in many industrialized as well as developing countries, they also meet a wide range of basic human needs, including fuel, food, fodder, fibre, shelter and medicinal plants. Forests play an important social role, in terms of sport recreation, etc. and also fulfil aesthetic, cultural and spiritual roles in many areas. Forests are important homes to indigenous peoples. Furthermore, forests play important ecological roles such as soil and water conservation; wildlife habitat; hydrological, oxygen and carbon cycles; and conservation of biodiversity, at the local, national, regional and global levels. Forests are a renewable resource for a wide range of environmentally friendly and biodegradable forest products.
In 1980, forests covered nearly 3,600 million ha of the earth's surface, in addition to another 1,700 million ha of wooded land not classified as forests. Together, forests and wooded land covered about 40% of the world's land surface. However, in many areas the quantity of natural forest has dwindled to virtually nothing, and forest quality continues to decline more quickly than these overall statistics suggest. At the Earth Summit in Rio, conservation, management and sustainable development of the world's forests to meet the needs of the present and future generations was recognized as a major challenge facing the world community.
Traditionally, the forestry community world-wide has considered forests mostly as a source of industrial wood and has managed forests on the principle of sustained yield. However it is now generally recognized that forests need to be conserved and managed for multiple values and that a shift from purely sustained yield to an ecosystem approach to forest management is necessary.
The international dialogue on sustainable forest management involves a wide range of interpretations and approaches that include environmental, social, economic, cultural, institutional and policy dimensions. There is a need to undertake a holistic approach to define criteria and indicators that characterize sustainable forest management and that are relevant to policy. The establishment of scientifically based criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management would provide the basis for:
formulating national forest policies;
promoting international cooperation in conservation and sustainable forest management;
facilitating international trade in forest products through support for certification; and
assessing progress towards conservation, management and sustainable development of forests at the local, national, regional and global levels.
The need to characterize sustainable forest management has been well recognized in recent international deliberations on forests. In the "non-legally binding authoritative statement of principles for a global consensus on the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests, it is stated that:
8(d) "sustainable forest management and use should be carried out in accordance with national development policies and priorities and on the basis of environmentally sound national guidelines. In the formulation of such guidelines, account should be taken, as appropriate and if applicable, of relevant internationally agreed methodologies and criteria".
In Agenda 21: Chapter 11, under the Program Area C on "Promoting efficient utilization and assessment to recover the full valuation of the goods and services provided by forests, forest lands and woodlands" it was agreed that governments in cooperation with special interest groups and international organizations should be involved in:
11.32 (b) "Formulating scientifically sound criteria and guidelines for the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests".
Concepts and definitions related to sustainable forest management have been evolving very rapidly during the past three years. In order to facilitate international dialogue on sustainable forest management, a number of significant attempts have been made to define it. The furthest advanced of these is the work of the ITTO (1990), who have published criteria for sustainable tropical forest management. ITTO has also supported the objective year 2000, by which progress is to be made towards trade in tropical timber products from sustainably managed sources. Other fora have included the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (Helsinki, 1993), the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) Seminar of Experts on the Sustainable Development of Temperate and Boreal Forests (Montreal, 1993), the FAO (1993), the Forest Stewardship Council (1993) and the Pan-European Round Table Meetings on Sustainable Forestry (Brussels and Geneva, 1994). The Indo-U.K. sponsored meeting in July, 1994 resolved that 'the work relating to criteria and indicators should continue with active participation from the FAO and ITTO'. A working group on criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management of non-European boreal and temperate forests has also met three times and has produced a working document (Olympia, 1994).
Based on the above-mentioned deliberations, the following may be considered as the working definitions of key terms:
Criterion: A category of essential conditions or processes by which sustainable forest management may be assessed. A criterion is characterized by a set of related indicators which are monitored periodically to assess change (Olympia, 1994).
Indicator: A measure (measurement) of an aspect af the criterion. A quantitative or qualitative variable which can be measured or described and which, when observed periodically, demonstrates trends. (Olympia, 1994)
Monitoring: The periodic and systematic measurement and assessment of change of an indicator (Olympia, 1994).
There is widespread agreement that conservation and sustainable development of forests includes the sustenance of environmental or ecological values as well as social and economic benefits.
The issue of scale also needs consideration. Forests, and the socio-economic systems that rely on forests, tend to be ordered hierarchically. Forest land, for example, may be treated at the stand or ecosystem level, the landscape of watershed level, the biome or ecoregion level, and at the global level. Because of the considerable range in the area of forest cover, socio-economic conditions and political organization in individual countries there is the need to recognize diversity of scale in deliberations on sustainable forest management. With a focus on the national level, this may mean the level of the biome in the case of Canada or Russia, or at the landscape or watershed level in the case of Belgium or Brunei.
The following table compares current international frameworks on criteria and indicators.
Table 1. Comparison of Criteria Frameworks ITTO Helsinki Process Montreal Process The forest resource base Maintenance/conservation/
enhancement of biodiversity Conservation of biological diversity The level of environmental control Maintenance of forest ecosystem health and vitality Maintenance of forest ecosystem health and vitality Maintenance/enhancement of productive functions (soil/water) Soil and water conservation Maintenance/enhancement of global carbon cycles Maintenance of contribution to global carbon cycles The continuity of flow Maintenance/encouragement of productive functions Mainenance of productive capacity Socio-Economic Effects Maintenance of other socio- economic functions and conditions Long-term output of socio- economic benefits Institutional Frameworks Legal, policy and institutional framework
The definition and characterization of sustainable forest management is a challenging task from scientific as well as national and international policy perspectives. From the point of national policy, international trade and international cooperation, it would be useful to address this issue at national and international levels. Yet the progress must be made step by step, as countries work within their own policies and opportunities to define the concept of sustainable forest management, and then seek regional harmonization of approaches.
At this point a great deal of progress that has been made by regional initiatives such as the ITTO, the Montreal CSCE meeting, the Helsinki Process, and the Olympia, Washington meeting on criteria and indicators. The Indo-UK meeting resolution, calling for a continuation of the work and active participation by the FAO and ITTO signals an opportunity to begin the work of harmonizing among regional criteria and indicators processes. This resolution could be reinforced by the support of countries participating in the Intergovernmental Working Group on Forests. Given the inter-linkage among the regional processes to date, and the compatibility of the results of these discussions, there appears to be opportunity to work towards a core framework of criteria and indicators that would have applicability to tropical, temperate and boreal forests.
In tandem with any international discussion of criteria and indicators must be a commitment to international technical cooperation in their measurement. Without the specification and commitment of resources to a monitoring system, the discussion of criteria and indicators leads only to a clarification of terms.
anon. 1992. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Forest Principles.
anon. 1992. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Agenda 21, Chapter 11.
anon. 1993. Ministerial conference on the protection of forests in Europe, 1-17 June 1993 in Helsinki. Conference Proceedings.
anon. 1994. Discussion Draft. Sept. 9, 1994. Criteria and Indicators for the conservation and sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests. Olympia, Washington.
anon. 1994. Resolution, Workshop Towards Sustainable Forestry: Preparing for Commission on Sustainable Development 1995. New Delhi, India, July 25-27, 1994.
Canadian Forest Service. 1993. Proceedings, Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Seminer of Experts, "Sustainable Development of Temperate and Boreal Forests". Montreal, Canada.
International Tropical Timber Organization. 1992. Criteria for the measurement of sustainable tropical forest management. Yokohama, Japan.