Considerable work has been done over the last decades and quite some progress has been achieved in harmonizing forest-related terms and definitions. Over the last decade, and increasingly over the last years, countries have pointed out the need for reducing the reporting burden on countries. In addition there is need for better and more comprehensive information on forest-related matters, including the identification and documentation of changes and trends in the sustainable management of forests over time. This calls for strongly increased efforts to further harmonize terms, classifications and definitions used for monitoring, assessment and reporting, and their repeated use over time. While considerable progress has been made in identifying and agreeing on the most important component that constitutes sustainable forest management, enhanced efforts are needed to comply with these requests by countries at all levels, from the local to the international level.
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