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INTERGOVERNMENTAL WORKING GROUP ON FORESTS (IWGF) REPORT

Ongoing processes

Three major international initiatives are underway, in addition to national and non-governmental ones, on formulation of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management:

1. The ITTO Criteria and Indicators are designed to assess progress towards achieving sustainable tropical forest management within the framework of ITTO's Year 2000 Objective. The set of Criteria and Indicators evolved from principles of sustainable management contained in the various ITTO Guidelines, namely on natural tropical forests, on planted forests and on conservation of biological diversity. The use of the list is specific to each nation or each management unit when determining sustainability.

2. The six pan-European criteria and their "most suitable quantitative indicators" are designed for assessing information on how the signatory states have succeeded in implementing the European guidelines for sustainable forest management and conservation of biological diversity. These criteria and indicators are intended for evaluation at the national level. In addition, descriptive (qualitative) indicators are used in the follow-up of the Helsinki Ministerial Conference.

3. The Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests for non-European countries has been launched to advance the development of internationally agreed criteria and indicators.

The criteria and indicators are intended to provide a common understanding of what is meant by sustainable forest management in the temperate and boreal region.