Guidelines For Developing Testing And Selecting Criteria And Indicators For Sustainable Forest Management

Preparing for C&I testing. C&I testing procedures. Follow-up analysis. The conceptual basis of C&I development. Three case studies. Literature and further reading.

There is increasing pressure on the forestry industry to adopt sustainable practices, but a lack of knowledge about how to facilitate this, and how to measure sustainability. This book reviews current thinking about scientifically based indicators, and sustainable management of natural forests and plantations. Information is applicable to boreal, temperate and tropical biomes. The contents have been developed from papers presented at a IUFRO conference held in Australia, in order to develop a state-of the art report on this subject.

Criteria and indicators constitute an increasingly common policy tool to implement sustainable forest management (SFM) and to define clear priorities and targets. This should improve monitoring, reporting and assessment of key aspects of SFM performance. These guidelines provide specific concepts, definitions, tools and reference materials to guide the development process of national criteria and indicator sets for SFM. They were developed to support the project “Accountability Systems for Sustainable Forest Management in the Caucasus and Central Asia” which is implemented through the UNECE and FAO.

The concept of criteria and indicators (C&I) for sustainable forest management (SFM) is suitable for defining, measuring and assessing sustainability in forestry. Within this study, the concept was developed further to a C&I system for application at the local level and tested as a case study at the Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve Ltd. in Canada. The research involved: development of a generic set of local level C&I, identification of verifiers and norms, field testing the C&I, development of indicator measurement databases, assessment of the state of the forest and its management, and the application of adaptive management procedures. Based on the generic C&I system for SFM and the comprehensive field test, the study provides a model for evaluating sustainability in the management of temperate forests around the world.

What is meant by a 'generic template'. Rationale for the creation of the 'generic template'. Justification. Structure. Links. How to read this document. The criteria and indicators. Policy. Ecology. Social. Production of goods and services.