Canada S Report On The Montr Al Process Criteria And Indicators For The Conservation And Sustainable Management Of Temperate And Boreal Forests

The Montreal Process was formed to advance the development of internationally agreed-upon criteria & indicators for sustainable forest management. The Canadian commitment to this process is demonstrated by the development of a domestic set of seven criteria & indicators, six of this relate to forest conditions, attributes, functions, or benefits. The seventh relates to the overall policy framework that can facilitate sustainable forest management and support efforts to conserve, maintain, or enhance the conditions, attributes, and benefits captured in the first six criteria. This report begins with an introduction describing forest ecosystems and forest management in Canada, explaining the area of forest covered by the report, and indentifying Canada-specific forest management characteristics to help place the criteria & indicators framework in context. The main section contains reports on the criteria, each with an introduction and reports on the corresponding indicators (what is being measured, indicator data or factual description, information sources). The final section contains a summary of all the criteria as well as an overview of Canada's ability to report on them and plans to enhance reporting capability in the future. Includes glossary.

The seven criteria and 67 indicators of the Montreal Process reflect an ecosystem-based approach to sustainable forest management & the need to serve human communities. This report highlights accomplishments in implementing the criteria & indicators of the Montreal Process, including capacity building, data collection, forest management, institutional & regulatory policy development, and technical co-operation. After an introduction on the Process, reports from the 12 participating countries are presented. These reports demonstrate each country's degree of commitment to the Process and progress in development & implementation of the criteria & indicators. The report continues with a discussion concerning the strengths & added values provided by working within the framework of the Process and concludes with a statement on future actions to be taken by the Montreal Process Working Group. A list of criteria & indicators is appended.

"This review looks at the Nation's legal, institutional, and economic capacity to promote forest conservation and sustainable resource management. It focuses on 20 indicators of Criterion Seven of the so-called Montreal Process and involves an extensive search and synthesis of information from a variety of sources. It identifies ways to fill information gaps and improve the usefulness of several indicators. It concludes that there is substantial information about the application of such capacities, although that application is widely dispersed among agencies and private interests; which in turn has led to differing interpretations of the indicators. Individual chapters identify a need to further develop the conceptual foundation on which many of the indicators are predicated. While many uncertainties in the type and accuracy of information are brought to light, the review clearly indicates that legal, institutional, and economic capacities to promote sustainability are large and widely available in both the public and private sectors."--P. vi.

This book reviews the current state-of-the-art within each of the four major themes: science and policy; inventory and monitoring; statistics and modelling; and information and knowledge management, in the context of sustainable forestry. It fosters dialogue across thematic areas concerning both strategic and operational approaches to integrate research on sustainable forestry. It also enhances and encourages international collaboration towards sustainable forestry practice worldwide.

The Working Group on Criteria & Indicators for the Conservation & Sustainable Management of Temperate & Boreal Forests (Montreal Process) developed a comprehensive set of criteria & indicators for use by policy makers, forest managers, and the general public. This document presents the 1995 Santiago Declaration issued by the original ten Montreal Process countries, introduces the criteria & indicators, and lists the indicators under each of the seven criteria. The first six criteria & associated indicators characterize the conservation & sustainable management of temperate & boreal forests. The seventh relates to the overall policy framework of a country that can facilitate the conservation & sustainable management of forests.

One of the critical issues of our time is the dwindling capacity of the planet to provide life support for a large and growing human population. Based on a symposium on ecosystem health, Managing for Healthy Ecosystems identifies key issues that must be resolved if there is to be progress in this complex area, such as: Evolving methods f