Past studies on tropical forests
Past studies on temperate and boreal forests
Progress towards the ITTO Year 2000 Objective
The present study
Developments in forest management over the past decade have focused on progress towards sustainable forest management, an approach that balances environmental, socio-cultural and economic objectives of management in line with the Forest Principles[1] agreed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992.
These efforts have stimulated changes in forest policy and legislation and in forest management practices in many countries. Public participation in forest management has increased in many countries. Broader approaches to forest management, such as ecosystem management and landscape management, are becoming more widely accepted and implemented. These approaches recognize the dynamism of ecological and social systems, the benefits of adaptive management, and the importance of collaborative decision making. Integrated strategies for forest conservation, in which conservation of forest resources and biological diversity entails management both inside and outside forest protected areas, are increasingly being developed.
On the international level, efforts to encourage sustainable forest management include initiatives to achieve a common understanding of the concept through the development of criteria and of indicators[2] by which sustainability of forest management can be assessed, monitored and reported at national and local levels. In some countries, model and demonstration forests have been established to demonstrate sustainable management in practice for a variety of forest types and management objectives.
As regards production forests, countries are moving towards broader management objectives. Initiatives established in the past decade included the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) Year 2000 Objective, which promoted sustainable forest management in countries that produce and consume tropical timber. A number of regional and national forest harvesting codes were also developed. Certification of forest products, a market-based mechanism devised to encourage the sustainable management of forests, has recently received considerable attention.
Despite these indications that there may be cause for cautious optimism, reliable information on status and trends in forest management worldwide is not readily available. Few attempts have been made in the past to estimate the extent of sustainable forest management in the world as a whole. Given the number of countries and the wide variety of forest types, local conditions and management objectives, this is, perhaps, not surprising. Previous attempts have, as a consequence, focused on specific regions and on specific management objectives and definitions of sustainable forest management.
Past studies which provide useful points of reference include the FAO Forest Resources Assessments of 1980 and 1990 and a study undertaken by ITTO in 1998. A recent assessment of progress towards the ITTO Year 2000 Objective provides valuable qualitative information on the forest management status in all ITTO producer and consumer countries.
FRA 1980
The FAO/UNEP assessment of tropical resources in 1980 covered 76 countries in tropical America, Africa and Asia[3]. The area of productive, closed natural tropical forest (comprising broad-leaved, coniferous and bamboo forest) was estimated at 886 million hectares of which an estimated 42 million (4.7 percent) were subject to intensive management for wood production[4]. Almost 80 percent of the area that was intensively managed was located in only one country (India). An additional 169 million hectares (19.1 percent) were subject to harvesting without intensive management and the remaining 674 million hectares (76 percent) were classified as “undisturbed”.
No estimate was provided for the management status of “unproductive” closed forests, totalling 315 million hectares of forest unavailable for wood production for physical or legal (including protected status) reasons. Nor was an estimate provided for the management status of open forest formations. (FAO/UNEP1982; FAO 1988).
FRA 1990 did not report information on forest management in tropical countries.
ITTO 1988
In 1988, a study by ITTO (Poore et al. 1989) reviewed the status of forest management in 17 of the then 18 producer country members and concluded that the total area of natural forest under sustained-yield management for timber production[5] was about 1 million hectares out of a potential productive forest of about 690 million hectares[6], or approximately 0.1 percent. However, the study also concluded that large areas nearly met the criteria for sustainable management.
Both of these studies were limited to production forests in the tropics and reported the area under management in percentage of the potential production forest area, not of the actual area subject to timber harvesting. A large area of the potentially productive forest area was, in fact, classified as “undisturbed” and therefore not in need of being managed for wood production.
FRA 1980
As part of the UNECE/FAO assessment of forest resources of Europe, the Soviet Union and North America, a questionnaire was sent out to 32 countries of the UNECE in December 1981. In addition to providing information on forest cover, 24 countries in Europe (including Cyprus, Israel and the Soviet Union) reported on the area of closed forest being managed according to a forest management plan and on the size of the forest area without a plan but subject to controls relating to management or use. All of these countries reported that all their closed forests were subject to either a management plan or some form of control of management or use. The total area of closed forest in the 24 reporting European countries was estimated at 142 million hectares, of which 83 million hectares, or 59 percent, were reportedly managed according to a management plan. The Soviet Union reported that all of its closed forest area, equalling 792 million hectares, was being managed in accordance with a plan.
FRA 1990
Thirty-four countries were covered in the UNECE/FAO 1990 assessment of forest resources of the temperate zones, and 26 of these (23 European countries, Canada, the United States and Australia) provided information on their forest management status. The total forest area of these 26 industrialized countries in the temperate/boreal zone was estimated at 626 million hectares, of which 347 million hectares, or 56 percent, were considered to be under active management.[7] In Europe, according to the information provided by 23 European countries, the total forest area was estimated at 129 million hectares, of which 92 million hectares, or 71 percent, were reported as being under active management. Although changes in definitions make direct comparisons difficult, a general trend of increase in the percentage of the area under management between 1980 and 1990 was noticeable.
This study, undertaken in 2000 and covering all producer and consumer country members of ITTO, assessed progress towards achieving sustainable management of tropical forests and trade in tropical timber from sustainably managed resources (the ITTO Year 2000 Objective). It did not provide quantitative information on the area of forest under sustainable forest management, but recorded a very considerable improvement over the situation recorded in ITTO producer countries in 1988. The study concluded, however, that only six producer countries (Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cameroon and Myanmar) appeared to have established all the conditions that make it likely that they can manage their forest management units sustainably. All consumer countries were found to be committed to sustainable forest management and most European countries were reported as considering that their forests would meet the criteria for sustainable forest management. (Poore and Thang 2000).
The present study does not attempt to estimate the total area of forests under sustainable forest management worldwide, since this would entail extensive field visits to provide a reliable estimate and since discussions on what constitutes sustainable forest management are still ongoing. Rather, it includes information on the following selected indicators demonstrating countries’ commitment to working towards sustainable forest management:
Three separate studies provide information on other important indicators: the area of forest classified as protected area (see Chapter 7 in FAO, 2001b), the area under approved forest harvesting schemes and the area of forest available for woody supply (see Chapter 9 in FAO, 2001b).
Many other relevant and important indicators of sustainable forest management exist but have not been included in the present study because of lack of adequate and comparable information. Efforts will be made to collate information on additional indicators for future reporting.
