Transcript Heartwood in Eucalyptus and its impact on pulping

Sustainable forest management
Criteria and indicators in the
context of small scale
community forest systems
Helena Pereira
CENTRO DE ESTUDOS FLORESTAIS
Forests are a key component of sustainable development
Sustainable forest management (SFM)
has become the pillar of forest policy at national,
regional or global scale
but SFM is a complex issue and
implementation requires improved
knowledge within a multidisciplinary
framework
Research
can contribute to a large extent in providing the rationale and
the background for such an integrated management of forests
Scientific challenges
-functional understanding by generalisation
and integration of approaches
-multidisciplinary teams
-multiscale approaches
SFM relies on
- multifunctionality
- dialogue
- follow up
Shifting emphasis on the role and management of forests
Over past centuries, forests produced goods and
management was about growth and yield.
Over the past decades, other forest functions became
important and the sustainability concepts in forestry
expanded from sustained yield towards management for
sustainable multifunctional use.
sustained yield (wood) >>> sustainable natural resource management
or ecosystem management
- overexploitation, degeneration, disappearence of forest
- importance of goods and services other then timber
- awareness that forests play key-role at local, regional and
global scale in regulating water, nutrient and carbon flows;
forests affect atmospheric composition, water resources,
biodiversity, global climate, gene flows, etc
Forest management deals with systems developing over large
temporal and spatial scales
Milestones
 1987 Bruntdland Commission
 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sustainable development: progress that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.
Three dimensions in sustainable development
- ecological sustainability
- economic feasibility
- socio-political acceptability
The objective is to maximise these goals across the biological, economic
and social systems.
 Indicators are necessary to put into effect the concept of sustainability
and to introduce it to policy making and monitoring processes
 One approach is to develop pressure-state-response indicators and this is
being applied to different sectors: agricultural, forest, industrial, energy
 The Forest Principles set out in UNCED triggered international
activities towards clarifying the term “sustainable forest management”,
namely in terms of operational definition.
 Operationalisation is still underway and the main outcomes are sets of
criteria and indicators (C&I) to determine the general objectives or
values that must be maintained in SFM as well as methods of
implementing SFM.
 The global focus of SFM is on the definition of C&I for the goals of
SFM and what management processes are necessary
Criteria : categories of conditions or processes by which SFM
may be assessed; clearly specified elements that define the
scope and key outputs of SFM; they reflect a series of broadly
held values related to the environmental, economic and social
functions of the forets; they have a set of related indicators
that are monitored periodically to assess change.
Indicator : a quantitative or qualitative measure of an aspect of
the criterion to show current performance and trends in
performance; they are chosen to provide measurable features of
the criteria.
Criteria for sustainable forest
management
 Development of the first criteria and indicators for SFM began in
the late 1980’ by ITTO (International Timber Trade Organization)
 Three programmes have been developed through international
cooperative processes to define sets of C&I for SFM
- Montreal Process criteria and indicators (MP C&I)
- European criteria and indicators (pan-European C&I)
- The ITTO Manual on criteria and indicators (ITTO C&I)
Montreal Process
7 Criteria
67 Indicators
Temperate and
boreal forests
Pan European Process
(Helsinki Process)
6 Criteria
35 Indicators
European forests
ITTO Manual
7 Criteria
25 Indicators
Natural tropical
forests
Criteria for sustainable forest management
Conservation of biological diversity
Maintenance of the productive capacity of forest
ecosystems
Maintenance of forest ecosystem health
Conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources
Maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycles
Maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple social
and economic benefits
Legal, institutional and economic framework for forest
management
Pan-European criteria
 C.1. Maintenance and appropriate
enhancement of forest resources and their
contribution to global carbon cycles

C.2. Maintenance of forest ecosystem
health and vitality
 C.3. Maintenance and encouragement of
productive functions of forests (wood and
non-wood)

C.4. Maintenance, conservation and
appropriate enhancement of biological
diversity in forest ecosystems

C.5. Maintenance and appropriate
enhancement of protective functions in
forest management (notably soil and water)

C.6. Maintenance of other socioeconomic functions and conditions
Pan-European criteria and indicators
 C.1. Maintenance and appropriate
enhancement of forest resources and their
contribution to global carbon cycles
- Forest
area (ha)
- Growing stock (m3)
- Age structure or dbh distribution (dbh class/ha)
- Carbon stock (tons CO2 equivalent/ha)
Pan-European criteria and indicators

C.2. Maintenance of forest ecosystem
health and vitality
- Deposition
of air pollutants (N, S, base cations kg/ha)
- Soil condition (pH, CEC cmol/kg, C/N ratio, organic C g/kg, base saturation %)
- Defoliation (%)
- Forest damage (biotic, abiotic, human induced damage, ha)
Pan-European criteria and indicators
 C.3. Maintenance and encouragement of
productive functions of forests (wood and
non-wood)
- Increment
-
and fellings (m3)
Roundwood (m3/ha, currency/ha)
Non-wood goods (kg, currency/ha)
Services (currency/ha)
Forests under management plans (%)
Pan-European criteria and indicators

C.4. Maintenance, conservation and
appropriate enhancement of biological
diversity in forest ecosystems
- Tree
-
species composition (ha, by species)
Regeneration (ha, nat.reg., planting, seedling, coppice sprouting)
Naturalness (ha, undisturbed/semi-natural/plantations)
Introduced tree species (ha)
Deadwood (m3/ha)
Genetic resources (ha, in situ conserv./ex situ conser./seed production)
Landscape pattern (patch area classes)
Threatened forest species (number)
Protected forests (ha)
Pan-European criteria and indicators

C.5. Maintenance and appropriate
enhancement of protective functions in
forest management (notably soil and water)
- Protective
forests – soil, water and other ecosystem functions (ha)
- Protective forests – infrastructure and managed natural resources (ha)
Pan-European criteria and indicators

C.6. Maintenance of other socioeconomic functions and conditions
- Forest
-
holdings (number, ha)
Contribution to GDP (absolute figures, % of GDP)
Net revenue (national currency/ha)
Expenditures for services (currency)
Forest sector workforce (number of full time equivalents)
Occupational safety and health (number of accidents, loss of time/fatal)
Wood consumption (m3 EQ/head/yr)
Trade in wood (m3 EQ/yr)
Energy from wood resources (Energy terms/yr, % energy consumption)
Accessibility for recreation (ha)
Cultural and spiritual values (number of sites)
Implementing sustainable forest management
is problematical and difficult
Balancing ecological and socio-economic benefits
SFM is a balance
or trade off of
ecological values
against social and
economic values
Social, economic and
cultural benefits
Ecological values
Optimising socio-economic benefits within
ecological constraints
Economic activity
operates within the
ecological
constrainsts of the
forest ecosystem
Ecological
constraints
Social,
economic,
cultural
Optimizing process
Sustainable forest management
Values: environmental, social, economic
Scale : regional, national, forest level, site level
Time : status and change
a
The relative weighting given to the values and their
quantification will vary
a Management goals for particular forests will vary
a Within forest variation of contribution to forest values
a Different levels of forest values for different forests
Acceptable balance for SFM <<>> mix and levels of values
Sustainable forest management
The C&I approach to SFM is internationally accepted at
national level by the different stakeholders (i.e. research,
policy makers, government bodies, economic partners) and
work is actively underway towards system harmonisation,
implementation, data gathering, monitoring and assessment
procedures.
But very little was developed at the level of:
- Forest Management Unit
- Small scale community forest systems
and locally relevant criteria and applicable indicators will
have to be designed (i.e. including autochthonous
indicators).
Also indicators have not been designed for certification of
SFM.
The C&I constitute a monitoring and measurement
framework and do not have any accompanying standards.
These will have to be the object of public forest policy and
regulation.