As part of its Planted Forests and Trees Working Papers series, FAO`s Forestry Department has just published "Responsible management of planted forests: Voluntary guidelines". The paper describes guiding principles for the sustainable management and use of planted forests, as well as key guidelines for each principle, and then considers selected cross-cutting issues that are important for effective implementation of the principles and guidelines, such as `operational planning and management`, where 11 issues, including biotechnology and genetic modification, are discussed. The guidelines were derived through an extensive multi-stakeholder process coordinated by FAO over a two year period. Papers in this series report on issues and activities in the planted forests sector and their purpose is to provide early release of information on ongoing activities and programmes and to stimulate discussion. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/j9256e/j9256e00.htm or contact [email protected] for more information or to provide any comments and feedback.

16/02/2007