What is it about?
• The paper provides a comparative analysis of different C&I frameworks • We analyse impacts of indicators from regional and international C&I processes • We identify six major impacts that apply to the C&I efforts: (1) enhanced discourse and understanding of SFM; (2) shaped and focused engagement of science in SFM; (3) improved monitoring and reporting on SFM to facilitate transparency and evidence-based decision-making; (4) strengthened forest management practices; (5) facilitated assessment of progress towards SFM goals; and (6) improved forest-related dialog and communication. We conclude that the 25-year history of C&I work in forestry has had significant positive impacts, though challenges do remain for the implementation of C&I and progress towards SFM.
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Why is it important?
Forests have been prominently on the agenda of world politics at least since the UNCED Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. Since then, the focus of academic attention has been mainly on global forest governance with a research gap regarding regional (or international) forest related processes. Criteria and indicators (C&I) for monitoring, reporting and assessing sustainable forest management (SFM) have increasingly raised importance to provide condensed information and support decision-making, nowadays also in light of the Sustainable Development Goals and emerging global challenges.
Perspectives
We conclude that the 25-year history of C&I work in forestry has had significant positive impacts, though challenges do remain for the national implementation of C&I in the 171 member countries of the 11 forest related C&I processes. There is a wide variation in quality of adaptation of the regional or international C&I sets into the national level, and hence in SFM monitoring and reporting. Ongoing political will and respective strategies to further promote C&I are crucial, if missing, leading to insufficient funding, low data availability, lack of expertise and trained personnel, lack of effective promotion and no inclusion into policy- and decision making processes.
Dr. Stefanie Linser
niversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU)
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: 25 Years of Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management: How Intergovernmental C&I Processes Have Made a Difference, Forests, September 2018, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/f9090578.
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Resources
Supplementary information
Supplementary material
25 Years of Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management: Why Some Intergovernmental C&I Processes Flourished While Others Faded
Open access publication
IUFRO SPOTLIGHT #62 - HOW AND WHY CRITERIA AND INDICATORS HAVE CHANGED FOREST MANAGEMENT SINCE THE RIO SUMMIT
IUFRO Spotlight is an initiative of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. Its aim is to introduce, in a timely fashion, significant findings in forest research from IUFRO member organizations and/or involving IUFRO officeholders to a worldwide network of decision makers, policy makers and researchers.
IUFRO SPOTLIGHT #62 - HOW AND WHY CRITERIA AND INDICATORS HAVE CHANGED FOREST MANAGEMENT SINCE THE RIO SUMMIT
IUFRO Spotlight is an initiative of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. Its aim is to introduce, in a timely fashion, significant findings in forest research from IUFRO member organizations and/or involving IUFRO officeholders to a worldwide network of decision makers, policy makers and researchers.
25 Years of Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management: How Intergovernmental C&I Processes Have Made a Difference
Open access publication
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