Sustainable forest management

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. It is also the current culmination in a progression of basic forest management concepts preceded by Sustainable forestry and sustainable yield forestry before that. Sustainable forest management is the term currently used to describe approaches to forest management that set very broad social and environmental goals. A range of forestry institutions now practice various forms of sustainable forest management and a broad range of methods and tools are available that have been tested over time.

The Forest Principles adopted at The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 captured the general international understanding of sustainable forest management at that time. A number of sets of criteria and indicators have since been developed to evaluate the achievement of SFM at both the country and management unit level. These were all attempts to codify and provide for independent assessment of the degree to which the broader objectives of sustainable forest management are being achieved in practice.

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A definition of the present day understanding of the term sustainable forest management was developed by the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), and has since been adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).[1] It defines sustainable forest management as:

the stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.

Criteria and indicators are policy instruments by which progress towards implementing sustainable forest management may be evaluated and reported on. Criteria define and characterize the essential elements, as well as a set of conditions or processes, by which sustainable forest management may be assessed. Periodically measured indicators reveal the direction of change with respect to each criterion.

Criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management are widely used and many countries produce national reports that assess their progress toward sustainable forest management. There are nine international and regional criteria and indicators initiatives, which collectively involve more than 150 countries.[2] Three of the more advanced initiatives are those of the the Working Group on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests (also called the Montreal Process) [3], the Ministerial Conference for the Protection of Forests in Europe [4], and the International Tropical Timber Organization [5]. Countries who are members of the same initiative usually agree to produce reports at the same time and using the same indicators. Within countries, at the management unit level, efforts have also been directed at developing local level criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. The Center for International Forestry Research and the International Model Forest Network have developed a number of tools and techniques to help forest-dependent communities develop their own local level criteria and indicators[6][7]. Criteria and Indicators also form the basis of the Canadian Standards Association certification standard for sustainable forest management.

There appears to be growing international consensus on the key elements of sustainable forest management. Seven common thematic areas of sustainable forest management have emerged based on the criteria of the nine ongoing regional and international criteria and indicators initiatives. The seven thematic areas are:

  • Extent of forest resources
  • Biological diversity
  • Forest health and vitality
  • Productive functions and forest resources
  • Protective functions of forest resources
  • Socio-economic functions
  • Legal, policy and institutional framework.

This consensus on common thematic areas (or criteria) effectively provides a common, implicit definition of sustainable forest management. The seven thematic areas were acknowledged by the international forest community at the fourth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests and the 16th session of the Committee on Forestry.[8][9]

The Ecosystem Approach has been prominent on the agenda of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) since 1995. The CBD definition of the Ecosystem Approach and a set of principles for its application were developed at an expert meeting in Malawi in 1995, known as the Malawi Principles.[10] The definition, 12 principles and 5 points of "operational guidance" were adopted by the fifth Conference of Parties (COP5) in 2000. The CBD definition is as follows

The ecosystem approach is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. Application of the ecosystem approach will help to reach a balance of the three objectives of the Convention. An ecosystem approach is based on the application of appropriate scientific methodologies focused on levels of biological organization, which encompasses the essential structures, processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment. It recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of many ecosystems.

Sustainable forest management was recognized by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2004 (Decision VII/11 of COP7) to be a concrete means of applying the Ecosystem Approach to forest ecosystems. The two concepts, sustainable forest management and the ecosystem approach, aim at promoting conservation and management practices which are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, and which generate and maintain benefits for both present and future generations. In Europe, the MCPFE and the Council for the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS) jointly recognized sustainable forest management to be consistent with the Ecosystem Approach in 2006.[11][12][13][14]

Growing environmental awareness and consumer demand for more socially responsible businesses helped third-party forest certification emerge in the 1990s as a credible tool for communicating the environmental and social performance of forest operations.

There are many potential users of certification, including: forest managers, investors, environmental advocates, business consumers of wood and paper, and individuals.

With forest certification, an independent organization develops standards of good forest management, and independent auditors issue certificates to forest operations that comply with those standards. This certification verifies that forests are well-managed—as defined by a particular standard—and ensures that certain wood and paper products come from responsibly managed forests.

This rise of certification led to the emergence of several different systems throughout the world. As a result, there is no single accepted forest management standard worldwide, and each system takes a somewhat different approach in defining standards for sustainable forest management.

Third-party forest certification is an important tool for those seeking to ensure that the paper and wood products they purchase and use come from forests that are well-managed and legally harvested. Incorporating third-party certification into forest product procurement practices can be a centerpiece for comprehensive wood and paper policies that include factors such as the protection of sensitive forest values, thoughtful material selection and efficient use of products.[15]

Some common certification standards are:

The area of forest certified worldwide is growing rapidly. As of December 2006, there were over 2,440,000 square kilometres of forest certified under the CSA, FSC or SFI standards, with over 1,237,000 square kilometres certified in Canada alone.[18][19]

While certification is intended as a tool to enhance forest management practices throughout the world, to date most certified forestry operations are located in Europe and North America. A significant barrier for many forest managers in developing countries is that they lack the capacity to undergo a certification audit and maintain operations to a certification standard.

  1. ^ Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe
  2. ^ Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management: A Compendium. Paper compiled by Froylán Castañeda, Christel Palmberg-Lerche and Petteri Vuorinen, May 2001. Forest Management Working Papers, Working Paper 5. Forest Resources Development Service, Forest Resources Division. FAO, Rome (unpublished)]
  3. ^ MPCI
  4. ^ MCPFE indicators
  5. ^ ITTO
  6. ^ CIFOR Criteria and Indicators Toolbox Series
  7. ^ International Model Forest Network Criteria and Indicators
  8. ^ United Nations Forum on Forests (2004)
  9. ^ Committee on Forestry (2003)
  10. ^ Malawi Principles
  11. ^ MCPFE
  12. ^ Council
  13. ^ Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy
  14. ^ PEBLD Strategy
  15. ^ Forest Certification Resource Center
  16. ^ Canadian Standards Association
  17. ^ Sustainable Forestry Initiative
  18. ^ Canadian Sustainable Forestry Certification Coalition
  19. ^ CSA

Reports in English unless otherwise noted


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