The international conference on the contribution of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management (CICI 2003) recommended that FAO and ITTO convene an expert consultation to consider and make recommendations to UNFF on a number of areas to enhance the role of criteria and indicators in sustainable forest management. Among them, this paper addresses the following:
i) Assessing the capacities of ongoing C&I processes to influence policy-makers
ii) Strengthening C&I processes including the need for liaison/secretariat facilities where no such facilities exist
iii) Promoting inter-process cooperation and sharing of information and know-how.
iv) Merits of forming an ad hoc international technical advisory group to address technical issues related to the development and implementation of criteria and indicators.
v) The role of FAO, ITTO and other national and international organizations in enhancing and strengthening countries’ capacities for better implementation.
In addressing these issues some overlap with papers presented in other sessions of the meeting is inevitable. To minimize overlap, this paper adheres as closely as possible to the above topics.
In order to assess the position of ongoing C&I processes a questionnaire incorporating a number of these issues was sent out to the identified contact points. Responses were received from around 80 percent of them11. That information, along with similar recent assessments, papers and consultations were used to facilitate analysis.
11 See Appendix 1 for details.
