Several C&I processes have been very active in developing a better common understanding of key concepts, terms, definitions and classifications among the countries participating in C&I processes. ITTO, the first international process to develop C&Is for SFM, recognizes the need for harmonization of definitions in the following areas: (a) for the criteria and indicator processes and for country reporting on progress towards sustainable forest management, taking into account the reporting requirements of different organizations; and (b) for the ongoing development of guidelines for the restoration of degraded high forests, the management of secondary forests and the rehabilitation of degraded forest lands in tropical regions (ITTO 2003).
In both areas ITTO has been active in developing common concepts, terms and definitions. ITTO has used country-level “Reporting formats for ITTO criteria and indicators for sustainable management of natural tropical forests” to help accomplish this with corresponding reporting questionnaires for indicators at the national level as well as for indicators on the forest management unit level. This reporting format was elaborated based on the decision of ITTC in 2000 which urged member countries to use the ITTO C&I for reporting on progress made towards the ITTO Year 2000 Objective.
In the ITTO Year 2000 Objective reporting C&I were used based on definition of terms on the following reference documents (table 4).
Table 4: Main references for terms and definitions used by ITTO to report on the Year 2000 Objective based on C&I
- Criteria and indicators for sustainable management of natural tropical forests. ITTO Policy Development Series No. 7. ITTO, Yokohama 1998 |
- FAO forest resources assessment, FRA 2000 terms and definitions. Forest Resources Assessment Programme, Working Paper 1. FAO, Rome, 1998 |
- IUCN definitions of the protected area categories of the World Conservation Union as of 1998 and IUCN endangerment status categories (post-1994) |
For the ongoing development of guidelines for the restoration of degraded high forests, the management of secondary forests and the rehabilitation of degraded forest lands in tropical regions, special efforts were made to elaborate definitions of degradation, restoration, rehabilitation and with regard to different forest types such as primary forest, modified forest, disturbed forest, degraded forest and secondary forest. They are presented in Appendix 9 of ITTO Guidelines for the Restoration, Management and Rehabilitation of Degraded and Secondary Tropical Forests (ITTO 2002). These definitions have also been harmonized with the FAO/IPCC/CIFOR/IUFRO/UNEP initiative on the harmonization of forest-related definitions (see chapter 4.4.1).
The Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe recently concluded its third round of reporting based on C&I for SFM by publishing “The state of Europe's forests 2003 – the MCPFE report on sustainable forest management in Europe” (MCPFE 2003). In 2003, MCPFE also concluded the evaluation and subsequent improvement of its set of indicators for SFM with the adoption of the improved set by the 44 European states participating in the MCPFE process. The terms used in the MCPFE C&I set are defined in a reference document “Terms and definitions used for the improved Pan-European indicators for sustainable forest management”. These terms and definitions are mainly based on the following references (table 5):
Data for MCPFE reports come primarily from existing regional data gathered using procedures and protocols for regional forest resource assessments. The 2003 report is mainly based on forest resource assessment data of TBFRA 2000 of UNECE/FAO, global FRA of FAO and updates of the FRA data that were conducted by UNECE/FAO and MCPFE in 2002. Additionally, new data on protected and protective forest areas was collected by UNECE and MCPFE according to the new "MCPFE assessment guidelines for protected and protective forest and other wooded land in Europe". For several indicators data were collected from other approved international sources.
Table 5: Main reference documents for terms and definitions used by MCPFE to report on C&I for SFM
- Terms and definitions as applied in the UNECE/FAO temperate and boreal forest resources assessment 2000 |
- FAO forest resources assessment FRA 2000 terms and definitions. Forest resources assessment programme, Working Paper 1. FAO, Rome 1998 |
- IUCN guidelines for protected area management categories 1994 and 1997 IUCN list of threatened plants |
- Joint UNECE/FAO/EUROSTAT/ITTO Forest sector questionnaire 2001 |
- “MCPFE assessment guidelines for protected and protective forest and other wooded land in Europe” 2003 |
- UNECE/EC “The condition of forests in Europe” 2002 |
The 12 Montreal process countries recently released their first country forest reports using the Montreal Process C&I for SFM in 2003 and jointly published the “Montreal process, first forest overview report: 2003”. In section IV of this report, all countries presented data available for one indicator under each of the seven criteria to illustrate the kind of data available in the individual country reports. A series of workshops and meetings of the Technical Advisory Committee elaborated the basis for the joint data reporting. The terms and definitions used for the 2003 Overview Report were mainly based on the following documents (Table 6):
Table 6: Main reference documents for terms and definitions used by MCPFE to report on C&I for SFM
- Criteria and indicators for the conservation and sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests Montreal process technical notes - glossary of terms, November 12, 2000 (accepted by MP countries) |
- Proposed definitions of selected terms related to the Montreal process criteria and indicators draft 3.0 September 25, 1996, Report of the Technical Advisory Committee (working technical aid) |
- Summary of Portland capacity building workshop, Montreal process capacity building workshop, August 2001, Portland, Oregon, USA. |
All other C&I processes have not yet used C&I for common reporting on progress towards SFM. However, in practically all of them reference documents are available that specify terms and definitions of terms used in the respective sets.
The African Timber Organization has harmonized its principles, criteria and indicators with those of ITTO in 2001, and has enhanced efforts to increase the consistency and compatibility of C&I-related concepts and terms used by ITTO and ATO. ATO and ITTO, in collaboration with other partners, are assisting their members to put the ATO/ITTO PCI into practice, inter alia through a project funded by ITTO for execution by ATO that trains forestry staff in each African ITTO member country in the implementation of the ATO/ITTO PCI. Definitions used in the ATO/ITTO PCI are consistent with those used by ITTO.
The Tarapoto process has held national consultations between December 1996 and June 2000 to review the applicability of the indicators of the Tarapoto proposal. The resulting 15 “very applicable” Amazon forest’s sustainability indicators are to be validated in the field in a regional project. This could in turn lead to common proposals for terms and definitions. The verification project should also train technicians and officials in the use of this set of Amazonian forest sustainability indicators in the monitoring of changes in the state of Amazonian forests.
The Near East process has conducted a number of regional workshops and expert meetings to review the applicability of the criteria and indicators in these countries and to discuss the availability of information and national capacities for collection and analysis of data. Guidelines for assessment and measurement were elaborated in 2000.
In the Dry Zone Africa process region several regional and sub-regional meetings were held that formed the basis for “Practical guidelines for the assessment and measurement of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in dry-zone Africa”, published by FAO in 2000.
For the Dry Forest Asia as well as for the Lepaterique process of Central America, FAO has assisted in the development of practical guidelines for the assessment and measurement of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in the region (see table 7).
Countries and/or C&I processes have also undertaken a range of activities to jointly advance the development of C&I as well as related terms and definitions. In 1993, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) sponsored an international seminar in Montreal, Canada, on the sustainable development of boreal and temperate forests, with a focus on developing criteria and indicators for the assessment of these forests. This conference, a follow-up of UNCED 1992, served as the starting point for the subsequently emerging C&I processes. It thus initiated a global harmonization of a definition for sustainable forest management.
Table 7: Documents related to terms and definitions of different C&I processes not yet reporting on C&I for SFM.
ATO |
ATO/ITTO principles, criteria and indicators for the sustainable management of African natural tropical forests |
Near East |
FAO/UNEP. 2000. Practical guidelines for the assessment and measuring of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in the Near East region. FAO Regional Office for the Near East. Cairo, Egypt; 2000 |
Dry Zone Africa |
UNEP/FAO. 2000. Technical guidelines for the assessment and measurement of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in dry-zone Africa. Rome, Italy |
Dry Forest Asia |
FAO. 2002. Practical guidelines for the assessment, measurement, monitoring and reporting on national level criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in dry forests in Asia. Rome, Italy |
Lepaterique |
FAO. Directrices prácticas para la evaluación, medición, implementación y seguimiento de los criterios e indicadores para el manejo sostenible de los bosques de Centro América y Belice. Roma, Italia. (In draft) |
In 1995, FAO in collaboration with ITTO held an expert meeting on harmonization of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. The meeting was aimed at reviewing the thematic and geographical coverage of ongoing, national-level initiatives on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management; seeking ways and means of involving countries and regions not covered by such initiatives; and promoting comparability, and possible harmonization, of ongoing initiatives.
In 1996 an intergovernmental seminar on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management (ISCI Seminar) was held in Helsinki, Finland. ISCI further established the concept of C&I as an important SFM concept that was subsequently endorsed by CSD. This in turn made the concept a truly global one. ISCI also gave a strong invitation for countries not yet involved to join C&I processes. It noted the need for common understanding of the terms, concepts and processes related to their development and application, including definitions of essential terms; units of measurement to be used; methods for data assembly, storage, accessibility and dissemination; methods for measurement and recording for selected indicators. A list of concepts and terms related to criteria and indicators was elaborated by FAO in collaboration with other partners in the process leading up to ISCI.
In 2000, an expert consultation on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management was hosted by FAO in Rome. The meeting noted that over 140 countries were currently involved in one or more international forestry C&I processes. All processes had identified similar criteria and a number of the same indicators, despite all differences among countries. The expert consultation recommended that an international conference on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management be organized, ensuring broad stakeholder involvement.
The International Conference on the Contribution of Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management: the Way Forward (CICI-2003) was held in Guatemala City in February 2003. Participants discussed progress in the use of C&I and the many inventory, assessment, reporting and planning applications. They also considered the potential benefits of a common set of criteria based on existing sets of criteria elaborated by regional and international processes on C&I, for facilitating the sharing of information and demonstrating progress towards sustainable forest management at international level. Participants acknowledged seven thematic areas of sustainable forest management common to all regional and international C&I processes. They concluded that there was a need for harmonization of concepts and terms related to C&I to improve common understanding of sustainable forest management and C&I.
Participants at CICI 2003 acknowledged, however, that the coverage and quality of available data at all levels was a major constraint for the effective implementation of C&I and sustainable forest management and, importantly, that national forest assessments and inventories constitute a basic source of information on indicators for use at national level. They can enhance action at national level and promote regional compatibility and comparability. They noted the need to ensure that data collected be relevant to policy and institutional needs and environmental conditions and the potential to further develop national forest assessments and inventories to respond better to the needs expressed by national C&I processes.
One of the main processes developing and refining forest-related definitions is the FAO forest resources assessment, which has been under implementation since the first assessment carried out more than 50 years ago in 1947. In 1951 the FAO Conference recommended that the Organization “maintain a permanent capability to provide information on the state of forest resources worldwide on a continuing basis”. Since that time, various other regional and global surveys have been conducted every five to ten years. Each has taken a somewhat different form. As the need for information on an increasing range of topics has grown, and as technology has advanced, the global forest resources assessment has increased in breadth and quality (Holmgren and Persson, 2002).
Statistics released by FAO on world forest cover from 1948 through 1963 were largely collected through questionnaires sent to countries. The assessments since 1980 have taken a more technical form, being based on the analysis of country references supported by expert judgements, remote sensing and statistical modelling. Information had to be adjusted to fit FAOs definitions. With information generated since 1980 reporting parameters stabilized. Over time more definitions were applied for developing countries for subsequent assessments.
In 1987 the ad hoc FAO/ECE/Finnida meeting of experts on forest resources assessment in Kotka was one of the first major attempts to harmonize approaches to forest resources assessment at global level. Definitions, which underpin any resource assessment, featured prominently on the meeting’s agenda. A follow-up meeting was held in the same location in 1993, 1996 and 2002. In 1996 the third meeting at Kotka (Kotka III, 1996) was convened to propose a framework for FRA 2000. In this meeting, experts also worked on the elaboration of a common agreed set of definitions to be used in FRA 2000. This “Kotka process” has since played a key role by providing a global framework for the development of terms and definitions.
The FAO global FRA 2000 (FAO, 2001) is to date the most comprehensive in terms of the number of references used and information analyzed on forest cover, forest state, forest services and non-wood forest products. FRA 2000 is also notable for applying for the first time a single technical definition of "forest" at the global level, based on 10 percent crown cover and "tree". FRA 2000 applies consistent definitions to forests and forest change processes worldwide and demonstrates that harmonization can be both successful and immensely useful.
In July 2002 the fourth expert consultation was held in Kotka (Kotka IV 2003) in order to evaluate GFRA 2000 and to prepare the FRA 2005 update. Kotka IV addressed more conceptual and strategic aspects of global forest resources assessments, including aspects relevant at regional and national levels, and building on the experiences from FRA 2000 and considering future reporting requirements at the international level. The experts made the following main recommendations related to terms and definitions:
- Regional initiatives related to forest resources assessment should continue to contribute to and, where appropriate, be coordinated with GFRA work, notably in relation to concepts, definitions and core parameters.
- Countries should take into account international reporting requirements when designing national forest inventories.
- Countries should, to the extent possible, collect data in national forest inventories in a way that makes national information suitable for reporting against agreed international definitions, procedures and methods for inclusion in the global forest resources assessment.
The design of the global FRA 2005 update is intended to serve also as the design for the full assessment in 2010.
4.2.2 Regional FRA and UNECE/FAO team of specialists on FRA meetings
FAO and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) have been collaborating in data collection and dissemination for nearly five decades. FAO and UNECE support a joint office (the Timber Section) at the UNECE's offices in Geneva. The Timber Section collects and analyzes forestry statistics for the ECE Region (Europe, North America and the Commonwealth of Independent States).
The now called "UNECE/FAO team of specialists on forest resources assessment" was established as an expert team on the "Temperate and boreal forest resources assessment (TBFRA) 2000” in 1993 and started its work in 1995. Since 1995 the team met annually, in deference to global forest resources assessment-related Kotka meetings. According to its mandate, it was focusing on many aspects of regional FRA work. This included recommendations on the concept, classifications, definitions and methods of the Assessment 2000, including parameters, structure and contents of the assessment and organization of FRA work as well as the establishment of a network of national correspondents.
The regional FRAs utilize available (national) data. National forest inventories have a long history in the temperate and boreal region and are currently carried out in most of the 55 nations covered by the regional FRA at regular intervals. However, the assessment methodology and the systems of nomenclature applied at national level differ. Taking into account the specific national information needs and the desire to maintain national time series requires that nations harmonize their data sets according to a common set of terms and definitions at international level. The TBFRA 2000 “Set of terms and definition” is the related and widely accepted reference in the boreal and temperate region.
UNECE and its team of specialists were also actively involved in the preparation, implementation and follow-up of the global FRA 2000, including Kotka meetings and the training of FRA national correspondents for the implementation of the global FRA 2005 update.
FAO and UNECE have been collaborating in collection and dissemination of data on forest products and trade for nearly five decades. In the mid-1990s, EUROSTAT of the European Union became a collaborator and in 1998 ITTO agreed to collaborate on the development of the joint forest sector questionnaire (JFSQ), merging the ongoing work of FAO, ECE, EUROSTAT and ITTO. Beginning in 1999, information for production and trade was gathered using JFSQ. JFSQ contains a production and trade questionnaire common to all countries and organizations, as well as other questionnaires for the specific needs of individual organizations. The inter-secretariat working group on forestry statistics was established in 1998 and continues to meet annually to review progress and recommend improvements.
JFSQ now includes the FAO Forest Products Questionnaire, the FAO UN/ECE EUROSTAT Timber Bulletin Questionnaire and the ITTO Forest Products Enquiry that many countries received from individual organizations annually until 1998. Thus supply of information to international organizations is concentrated and streamlined; there is no duplication of effort and all organizations use the same basic data, reducing the reporting burden on countries and enabling each organization to concentrate its data collection activities on a smaller group of countries. The basic principles and methods of cooperation in JFSQ include:
• That there be one national correspondent for forest sector statistics in each country and the national correspondent only complete one form (including the questionnaires of the four organizations).
• That each item of information be requested only once from each country.
• That JFSQ be accompanied by a terms and definitions document where all terms and definitions have been harmonized and are internally consistent.
• That the completed questionnaire be sent to one focal organization, which then provides the information required for the three other groups participating in the activity.
• That each organization focus on the data validation efforts in a limited number of countries, trusting their partners to work with other countries.
• That the information received through the joint questionnaire be distributed to all four organizations.
• That information from JFSQ be shared between the four organizations.
• That each organization continue to use the information it receives according to its own mandate, which remains completely unchanged by practical cooperation in data collection.
See chapter 5.2.3 on further information on the terms and definitions document of the JFSQ.
Most international institutions or organizations with a major interest in forest-related matters are concerned with forest terms and definitions, and many institutions have elaborated glossaries of terms or definitions. All major UN-related conventions have definitions of key terms in the convention itself and have installed expert groups to develop relevant further definitions. An overview of work of main forest-related conventions on terms and definitions is in Puustjärvi and Simula (2002).
The CBD ad hoc technical expert group on forest biological diversity under CBD developed biodiversity-related definitions (see CBD 2002). Several institutions have developed glossaries of terms related to the Convention on Biological Diversity, including UNEP-WCMC. UNEP-WCMC, together with CIFOR, has also developed a range of definitions (UNEP-WCMC and CIFOR, 1997). At the sixth Conference of Parties of CBD the parties adopted the expanded programme of work on forest biodiversity that contains, as an objective, the review and adoption of a harmonized global to regional forest classification system, based on harmonized and accepted forest definitions and addressing key forest biological diversity elements as well as the development of national forest classification systems and maps (using agreed international standards and protocols to enable regional and global synthesis) (CBD Decision VI/22).
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of UNFCCC has developed forest-related definitions for use in climate change issues involving land use, land use change and forestry. UNFCCC/SBSTA has developed definitions for "afforestation" and "reforestation", needed for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. IPCC also develops definitions for human-induced "degradation" of forests and "devegetation" of other vegetation types and methodological options for inventory and reporting on emissions resulting from these activities. Decisions of parties related to definitions can be found in decision-/CP.9, decision 17/CP.7 and decision-/CMP.1 of UNFCCC.
CCD has asked the Committee on Science and Technology under the Conference of the Parties of CCD to develop benchmarks and indicators for desertification. In conjunction with the Teheran process on low forest cover countries (LFCC), UNEP/IUFRO have developed definitions on "low forest cover".
Several international institutions have made major contributions to the elaboration of a consistent and compatible terminology and classification system related to C&I-SFM. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has established the global reference for the classification of protected areas. This classification system is the most widely used and most important global system. The difficulty of consistent and meaningful application in the classification of forest-related protection regimes has initiated improvement work of the current classification, including, through MCPFE, for regional application in Europe. No globally improved system has so far been presented by IUCN. IUCN also is the main global reference source for definitions of terms related to different categories of endangerment of living species.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has developed a code of practices for forestry work that contains related definitions. CIFOR/World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and IUCN work on the development of a plantation typology. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has elaborated definitions in several areas of their work, parts of which are relevant for forest matters.
The International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) has developed the SilvaTerm database, a terminological database for forestry that is being built by SilvaVoc, IUFRO‘s project on forest terminology. Terminology being living expert knowledge, this is not a static database, but a continuing process of change and revision. At present, the database is based mainly on terms and equivalent terms of a trilingual forestry vocabulary. This basic stock of terms is regularly improved with definitions and additional terms by IUFRO Units in three languages. ICRAF, the World Agroforestry Centre, has developed a glossary of agroforestry terms, as has INBAR, the international network for bamboo and rattan.
The UN Statistical Division (UNSD) has developed and maintains the international standard classification of all economic activities (ISIC). ISIC is a standard classification of economic activities arranged so that entities can be classified according to the activity they carry out. Forest-related activities are covered under A 02 - Forestry, logging and related service activities. UNSD also developed the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), which is the classification used by UN for reporting of international trade statistics. Most countries report using the harmonized commodity description and coding system (HS), an international commodity classification for describing goods internationally traded, which UN converts to SITC. The provisional central product classification (CPC) is devised by UN and represents the first worldwide classification that encompasses both goods and services. As regards goods, CPC uses the headings and subheadings of HS.
4.4.1 FAO/IPCC/CIFOR/IUFRO/UNEP harmonization initiative
In January 2002, FAO, IPCC, CIFOR and IUFRO jointly organized an expert meeting on harmonizing forest-related definitions for use by various stakeholders. The meeting started a process which aims to achieve more consistency in the use of forest-related definitions, thus contributing to reducing reporting requirements and respective costs for countries, as well as facilitating communication and negotiation between international conventions, processes and instruments.
The experts recommended harmonization, not standardization, of terms and definitions. Harmonization works by compiling existing definitions into a framework, so that they are easier to recognize, compare, adjust or even convert. Harmonization does not judge chosen definitions, with no intent to interfere with the political dialogue. It aims to facilitate political processes by pointing out the meaning of the various definitions, clarifying differences and relations and easing informed choices. The meeting discussed the following classes related to the state of the land: forest, other wooded land and other land, including trees outside forest. The following change processes between these land classes were discussed: deforestation, afforestation, natural expansion of forests, reforestation, natural regeneration, forest degradation, forest improvement, devegetation and revegetation (FAO, 2002a).
In September 2002 a second expert meeting on harmonizing forest-related definitions for use by various stakeholders was organized, also involving the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The meeting reiterated the need for a common understanding of, and harmonization between, forest-related definitions of core terms used by different international processes and instruments to reduce errors in employing terms, the reporting burden on countries and related costs, and the confusion in communicating with the media and the public at large. It recommended wide dissemination and use of the comparative analytical framework of forest-related definitions between international processes, which was developed during this definitions process (FAO 2002b).
The second meeting considered in its conclusions the need and tools for harmonization, the status of harmonization (see chapter 5.2.2) and a range of definitions, including for:
• Forest and change processes between forest and other land classes
• Forest degradation and change processes within the forest
• Managed and unmanaged forests
• Forest condition
• Forest classification
• Low forest cover
Next steps planned in the harmonization process include harmonizing core terms in Spanish and French, and clarifying terms related to naturalness of forests and planted forests. The FAO definition process is closely linked to the activities of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), and has been attended by nearly all CPF members.
The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) established a task force on streamlining forest-related reporting in June 2002, consisting of members of FAO, ITTO, UNEP-WCMC and secretariats of CBD, UNCCD, UNFCCC and UNFF. The CPF task force was created to propose ways to reduce the forest-related reporting burden, for example, through reducing and streamlining reporting requests, synchronizing reporting cycles, harmonizing data collection methods and increasing data comparability and compatibility, and facilitating the accessibility and flows of existing information. It also seeks to guide ongoing international processes by sharing experiences and lessons learned on different reporting frameworks and by seeking possibilities for common approaches for data and information collection, storage and reporting by international organizations. In the longer term, CPF sees that the work could aim to contribute to better information management system(s), whereby data and information would be more easily accessible and widely available, and in which the information could eventually be inserted and updated by countries themselves (CPF 2004).
The CPF task force has reviewed current national reporting requirements and procedures of various international organizations, agreements and bodies. It is identifying practical approaches and means for harmonizing and streamlining reporting by countries, including the contents, frequency and timing, and proposing better coordinated or reduced reporting and/or joint information requests.
The CPF task force also seeks practical solutions to managing forest-related information and making forest-related information and reports easily accessible by seeking ways to improve information storage and retrieval systems, which make data and information more easily accessible and by seeking possibilities for integrated or interlinked information management system(s) among CPF members. It has developed an internet portal that provides easy access to national reports submitted to major international processes dealing with forests and the corresponding reporting formats, with a view to facilitating reporting on forests to international agreements and fora, improving knowledge of work undertaken on forests, and to improving coordination. CPF members presented a proposal to develop a common information framework on national reporting to international bodies at the meeting of the UNFF ad hoc expert group on approaches and mechanisms for monitoring, assessment and reporting, held in Geneva in December 2003.
