EARTH SUMMIT+5 Special Session of the General Assembly to Review and Appraise the Implementation of Agenda 21 New York, 23-27 June 1997 PROGRAMME FACT SHEETS

	Development of National Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management
	Responsible Organization(s)	FAO, Forest Resources Division
	Description	The identification of agreed-upon indicators will serve as the basis for periodic, national level assessment and monitoring of the overall effects of forest management interventions and the consequences of non-intervention. This will allow action to be adjusted over time to better meet stated, overall aims and objectives in support. This will allow action to be adjusted over time to better meet stated, overall aims and objectives in support of the various functions of forests recognised in Agenda 21 and the "Forest Principles".
	Issues addressed	The definition of criteria for sustainable forest management has lead to a general agreement on the essential element of forest management and on the principles against which the sustainability of forests can be assessed .
	Objectives	In order to facilitate international dialogue, agencies such as FAO and IUFRO should continue their efforts to clarify key concepts and terms related to sustainable forest management, and to harmonise terminology with that used in other related fields of forestry. Efforts should be continued to involve those countries and ecological regions which are not yet participating in on-going international initiatives. Full use should be made in such efforts of already established mechanisms, existing international fora and sub-regional and regional groupings. Continued exchange of information, know-how and experience should vigorously pursued to ensure comparability and compatibility between initiatives and to avoid wasteful duplication of effort. Special attention should be paid by national governments and the international community to the need to strengthen capacities to collect and compile reliable data for the monitoring of sustainability of forest management and national and operational levels; and to help ensure that information generated is relevant, scientifically sound and technically valid and, above all, that is used to underpin and improve field level action. Further efforts are needed to clarify the relationship between national and forest management unit level criteria and indicators, and to clarify possible linkages and inter-relationships between forest management unit level indicators and forest product certification.
	Results achieved	A number of international processes are presently underway to help underpin the efforts of countries to comply with the above objectives. These include the ITTO Guidelines and Criteria for sustainable forest management, which aim at supporting improved management of tropical high-forests; and the Montreal and the Helsinki Processes, which have identified criteria and indicators for sustainable management of temperate and boreal zone forests outside of Europe, and European forests, respectively. The elaboration of the Tarapoto Proposals for the sustainable management of the Amazon forest, have been more recently followed by the Dry-Zone Africa, Near East and Central America initiatives.
	Lessons learned	The six or, at times, seven criteria defined by the above international processes are identical, or very similar between them. While partly overlapping, it is on the other hand generally recognised that the indicators which correspond to identified criteria should be closely linked to national conditions, needs and priorities, and therefore vary both between the various processes and among countries within them.
	Financing	FAO Regular Programme, UNEP's contribution, bilateral trust funds.
	Contact	Mrs C. Palmberg-Lerche, Chief, Forest Resources Development Service Forestry Department, FAO Tel.: (396) 52253841 Fax: (396) 52256661