Representatives of the nine ecoregional processes on criteria and indicators provided the information on the number of countries that were participating in these processes during a meeting held in Rome in November 2000.
To obtain updated information on the area of forests under management plans, the topic was specifically included in FRA 2000. The FRA 2000 Guidelines for assessments in tropical and subtropical countries, which were sent to all developing countries, included a table for recording the area of forest subject to a forest management plan[8] according to national forest type classification and main management objective (production, conservation, other) where possible. For the industrialized temperate/boreal countries, information was requested on area of managed forest[9] broken down according to ownership status rather than main management objective. No distinction was made among forest types.
As the area of forest subject to a forest management plan is not necessarily consistent with the area of forests being managed sustainably, the information provided by FRA 2000 was supplemented with information provided on areas under certification. This information, which is confined to areas being managed for wood supply, was compiled through a desk study from a variety of mostly Web-based sources.
