Perfil de los miembros
Sr. Adam van Opzeeland
Organización:
Ministry for Primary Industries
País:
Nueva Zelandia
Campo(s) de especialización:
Sr. Adam van Opzeeland
Adam van Opzeeland, in collaboration with colleagues from the Ministry for Primary Industries, New Zealand
We would like to thank Mr Kit Prince for his excellent work in drafting and developing these indicators, and commend the task force for their work in refining the set. It is pleasing to see the progress made, and the continued input from a range of stakeholders through the Ottawa meeting last year, the OLI meeting in Rome last November, and other international forests meetings.
Some general comments and questions:
Some comments on individual proposed indicators:
Indicator 2: Have no problem with the removal of “legally established” but would prefer to keep the “%” from previous iteration and use recognised IUCN and CBD definitions of protected areas.
Indicator 3:Although this indicator is quantitative, narrative and explanation notes are still important to avoid perverse outcomes by maximising biomass (e.g. with fast growing plantations) at the expense of natural forests, or other inappropriate sites.
Indicator 4: This is similar to Montreal Process indicator 4.1.a, however we propose to change the first “and” to “or”. This better aligns with the Montreal Process indicator and allows for the inclusion of forest area that is managed for the protection of soil or water, but not necessarily as its primarily designated as land area for this purpose. It would then read “Forest area designated or managed for protection of soil and water”
Indicator 6: We acknowledge that effective SFM is contextual and a different challenge for different countries, and thus broadly support the inclusion of this indicator. We note that the inclusion of the deleted sections in the explanatory note is important (as is noted in the comments section), and that the note should acknowledge that this deleted section is a list of examples and that there are others beyond the list (i.e. please include “inter alia” to accommodate this). The indicator itself could be strengthened by inserting “ongoing implementation of” in place of “existence of”.
Indicators 7 and 8: Similar to Indicator 6, it would be good to see something in the title of the indicator that requires an ongoing process, and the improvement/strengthening of such a process. We support the retention of ‘scientifically sound’ in indicator 7.
Indicator 13: An indicator to address illegal logging is important, and we are pleased that the preferred indicator at this time is a policy based, rather than an outcome-based, indicator, as we know that reliable data are very hard to obtain, and what is considered legal is contextual. We also note that indicator 10 could be complemented by this indicator, adding chain of custody to forest certification.
Indicator 14: it could be useful to count the degree of forest disturbance/year and the causes, but it is difficult to attribute this to “forest health and vitality”, as some disturbance will have a positive effect on forest health, and some a negative, and in many cases this cannot be determined for longer time periods.
Indicator 18: the use of the wood once is harvested is beyond the scope of sustainable forest management, as forests should be managed when growing, and when harvested, in a legal and sustainable way regardless of end use. There could also be issues with what constitutes modern clean systems and put cost-barriers in place for traditional and low-income forest-dependent com
Indicator 19: This is an important topic but, as is noted in the comments, the indicator is not yet ready. As mentioned in our general comments above, there is a need for acknowledgement of ecosystem services from forests, and this is important for the value proposition of intact forests and forest systems, and forestry practises that nurture these.
Agree with removal of indicators 20 and 21: 20 is out of scope, and carbon (21) should be left to the work of the appropriate body (UNFCCC).
Finalising the list of core indicators
As a final comment, we are interested in clarifying the process for finalising the list of core indicators, and members states having final input. It was mentioned at the 12th Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests that the list would be finalised following the FRA expert consultation. Will members states be given the opportunity to review this list again, or an opportunity to approve the list before finalisation? When and where will the CPF task force present the final proposed list?