Monitoring of progress towards SFM
Monitoring provides information needed for adaptive management. ©FAO/Mondal Falgoonee KumarSustainability should always be considered over the long term. Short-term changes may occur as a result of management interventions in a forest stand, but what is important is the maintenance of resilience and all forest values in the long run at a larger scale.
SFM requires monitoring at differing spatial levels, with periodic aggregation at larger scales. Such monitoring will indicate where corrective actions are required. The implementation of SFM is a continuous, iterative process involving adaptation over time.
Criteria & Indicators for SFM
Criteria and indicators (C&I) are tools used to define, guide, monitor and assess progress towards SFM in a given context. C&I have emerged as a powerful tool in promoting SFM. Since the United Nations Conference on Environment & Development (UNCED) of Rio 1992, several different international processes and initiatives have developed criteria and indicators as a framework for SFM, which have resulted in varying levels of implementation across countries. In recent years, interest in C&I for SFM has again increased in light of the potential use of C&I to monitor, assess and report on forest conditions and trends given the SDG and other global forest-related goals and challenges. C&I provide a framework that characterizes the essential components of SFM, and recognize forests as ecosystems that provide a wide range of environmental, economic and social benefits to society.
ITTO pioneered the development of C&I in tropical forests in the early 1990s, publishing the world’s first set of criteria for SFM with the aim of enabling the assessment of the condition of tropical forests in producer member countries and identifying weaknesses in forest practices.
FOREST EUROPE developed and endorsed its first set of C&I for SFM in 1998. The Updated Pan-European Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management was endorsed by the ministers at the 7th Ministerial Conference in Madrid 2015. The current set of C&I represents the consensus achieved by European countries on the most important aspects of SFM and provides guidance for developing policies and help in assessing progress on SFM.
FAO’s three-year project “Strengthening criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in policy and practice” (2014–2016) increased the use of further developed C&I or forest indicators as tools for strengthening SFM in planning, decision-making, and monitoring and reporting in policy at national, regional and global levels and in practice.
Global Core Set (GCS) of forest-related indicators
The international community has articulated many processes related to forests, and there is a strong commitment by all parts of the international community to provide the information necessary for monitoring progress towards these targets in a comprehensive, efficient, timely and meaningful way. However, there has not, so far, been a close coordination of the different forest-related indicators used by these various processes. This has contributed to unclear messages, and an unnecessarily high reporting burden.
To remedy this problem, a task force under the Collaborative Partnership on Forests has been working to develop a global core set of forest-related indicators, with the aim of simplifying and harmonizing concepts and terminology, on a voluntary basis, while respecting the needs of all potential users.
The Global Core Set of forest-related indicators, which covers all seven thematic elements of SFM, aims to contribute to the following purposes:
- to measure progress towards sustainable forest management (including SDG 15.2.1);
- to measure progress in implementing the UN Forest Instrument and the UN Strategic Plan for Forests, notably the Global Objectives on Forests, and their associated targets;
- to measure progress towards SDG targets other than 15.2.1, as well as internationally agreed goals on forests in other instruments notably through meeting the forest-related reporting needs of the Rio conventions.
In the 24th Session of Committee on Forestry (COFO) in 2018, FAO was requested to support the capacity development for relevant country stakeholders to collect and analyze data for the GCS.
Monitoring of SDG 15
FAO is the custodian agency for 21 indicators across all SDGs, including three indicators for SDG 15 targets 15.1, 15.2 and 15.4. FAO’s main tasks as a custodian agency are the development of methodologies to measure progress; the collection, compilation and validation of data; the submission of data and storylines to the United Nations Statistical Division; and the provision of support to enable countries to develop their reporting capacity.
The following five sub-indicators under Target 15.2 measure progress on the three dimensions of SFM (i.e. economic, social and environmental), taking intergenerational equity into account:
- forest area net change rate: monitors the rate at which forest area changes over time);
- aboveground biomass stock in forests: indicates the amount of living aboveground biomass stored in forests, comprising stems, stumps, branches, bark, seeds and foliage;
- proportion of forest area located in legally established protected areas: indicates the extent to which forest is managed for the protection and maintenance of biodiversity and other natural and cultural resources;
- proportion of forest area under long-term forest management plans: indicates the proportion of the forest estate for which there is a documented intention to manage. Management plans can have various purposes, such as the production of wood and non-wood products and the conservation of biodiversity;
- forest area under independently verified forest management certification schemes: indicates the area of forest for which forest management certificates have been issued by accredited independent bodies in compliance with national and international standards.
Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA)
Since 1946, FAO has been monitoring the world’s forest resources through periodic assessments conducted in cooperation with its member countries. The information provided by the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) presents a comprehensive view of the world’s forests and the ways in which the resource is changing. Such a clear global picture supports the development of sound policies, practices and investments affecting forests and forestry.
Public interest in the state of the world’s forest resources has been increasing over the past 70 years and, over time, the scope of the reporting framework has had to evolve and adapt to changing information needs. FAO’s assessments have embraced a more holistic perspective to address all the aspects of SFM.
While the earlier assessments were FAO driven, with limited country involvement, a more bottom-up approach has been taken since the 1980s, with countries becoming more involved in both data collection and the process of reclassification, estimation and forecasting of national data to a common set of global categories. During the same period, the technical approach was improved, with assessments based on analysis of country sources supported by expert judgements, remote sensing and statistical modelling. Increased emphasis was also put on assessing trends in forest areas and stocks. Since FRA 1990, assessments have been published every five years.
The latest of these assessments, FRA 2020, examines the status of, and trends in, more than 60 forest-related variables in 236 countries and territories in the period 1990–2020. FRA 2020 data were collected using commonly agreed terms and definitions through a transparent, traceable reporting process and a well-established network of officially nominated national correspondents that covers 187 countries and territories. More than 700 people were directly involved in this process. The FRA 2020 report and further information can be found here.