A total of 149 countries are currently members of one or more of nine regional or ecoregional initiatives to develop and implement criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. All of these were established within the last ten years.
One of the indicators identified in these initiatives is the extent of the forest area managed according to a management plan and/or for specific management objectives.[20]
All industrialized countries (accounting for 45 percent of the total forest area in the world, most of it in the temperate and boreal zones) have reported on the area of forest managed as part of FRA 2000 reporting. The results indicate that 89 percent of the forests in these countries are being managed subject to a formal or informal management plan. National figures are still missing from a fairly large number of developing countries, including many of the larger countries in Africa and some key countries in Asia. Nevertheless, results obtained so far show that of a total forest area of 2 139 million hectares in non-industrialized countries, at least 123 million hectares, or about 6 percent of the total forest area, are covered by a formal, nationally approved forest management plan with a duration of at least five years.
It must be emphasized that the total area reported to be subject to a formal or informal forest management plan is not necessarily equivalent to the total area of forest under sustainable forest management. The present study does not indicate whether the plan is appropriate, being implemented as planned or having the intended effects. Some areas reported as being covered by a management plan may, therefore, not be sustainably managed, while other areas not currently under a formal management plan may be.
The use of different definitions makes it difficult to compare the situation between industrialized countries and developing countries and to derive a global total of forests under management plans. In addition, some industrialized countries interpreted the definitions in different ways. Moreover, many developing countries did not include forests in protected areas in the area under management, and some countries excluded plantations. These problems suggest a need for further refinement and consistency of approaches in future reporting on the area of forest under management plans.
One way of demonstrating that a particular forest is being managed sustainably for wood production purposes is through the act of third-party certification. A number of international, regional and national forest certification schemes now exist. Depending on how the term “area certified” is defined, the area of certified forests worldwide at the end of 2000 was estimated at around 81 million hectares or about 2 percent of the total forest area. About 92 percent of these forests were located in seven temperate industrialized countries (the United States, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Germany and Poland). Only four countries with tropical moist forests (Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico) were listed as having more than 100 000 ha of certified forests, for a combined total of 1.8 million hectares.
Whereas certification implies that an area is well or sustainably managed for wood production, the total area of well-managed forest is not limited to certified areas. Many uncertified forests, including both those managed primarily for wood production and those with other management objectives, may also be under sound management.
Notwithstanding the inherent difficulties in comparing FRA 2000 results with those from previous studies because of differences in definitions used and countries included, there are, however, indications that, overall, the situation as regards forest management has improved in most regions over the past 20 years.
