Year of publication 2016

C&I constitute a common policy tool to assist countries in monitoring, assessing and reporting on trends in forest conditions and progress toward SFM at various levels, while allowing for differences within and between countries. Improvements in the quality, coverage and consistency of C&I data in an increasing number of tropical countries has enabled more comprehensive regional and global forest assessments, such as ITTO’s reports on the status of tropical forest management (Blaser et al. 2011) and FAO’s FRAs. Countries that use C&I for monitoring, assessment and reporting are likely to be well-positioned to respond to external requests for forest-related reporting. The version of the ITTO C&I presented in this document is designed to address the four objectives of SFM enumerated in the Voluntary Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests (ITTO 2015): 1. providing the enabling conditions for SFM; 2. supporting forest ecosystem health and vitality; 3. maintaining the multiple functions of forests to deliver products and environmental services; and 4. integrating economic, social and cultural aspects in forest management.