Year of publication 2011

In 1987 the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) commissioned a survey of tropical forests in its member countries, specifically directed at the management of forests for timber production. The scope of that survey was later extended by the publication No Timber without Trees (Poore et al. 1989), which set it in the wider context of the management of tropical forests for all purposes. It concluded that an insignificant proportion of the world’s tropical forests was managed sustainably, although some – but not all – of the conditions for sustainable management were present in a much larger area. At its 30th session in 2001, the International Tropical Timber Council decided to prepare a new and more comprehensive survey of sustainable forest management (SFM) in the tropics and, in its Decision 9(XXX), authorized the Executive Director “to prepare and publish [a] Status of Forest Management Report, based on available evidence”. The main report of that survey, which used 2005 as its nominal reporting year, was published in 2006 (ITTO 2006). In its 2008–09 Biennial Work Programme, the International Tropical Timber Council made provision for a further report on the status of tropical forest management, and it made funds available to member countries to assist in the preparation of national reports that were to be used as one of the sources of information. This document is an outcome of that process, presenting, in effect, a third survey of the status of tropical forest management in the tropics.